Today, Suncor Energy Products Inc. announced final Board of Directors’ approval for its refinery expansion project, and unveiled a $500,000 gift to the Bluewater Health Foundation.
The Suncor Energy Foundation’s $500,000 contribution is directed to Bluewater Health Foundation’s State of the Heart Campaign. This five year commitment will assist Bluewater Health to build a state of the art community facility which will provide primary hospital care for local communities in and around Sarnia-Lambton.
“We’re investing in Sarnia in two ways: we’re helping Bluewater Health to strengthen our community and we’ve reached an important milestone in our refinery expansion efforts,” said Kirk Bailey, vice president, Sarnia Refinery.
The gift was announced at a Suncor Refinery event to mark final approvals for Project Genesis, an $800 million investment in Suncor’s Sarnia refinery. Guests had the opportunity to view first-hand the expansion’s new 806-tonne reactor vessel – a key component of the expansion project, which recently arrived from Italy.
The expansion project includes constructing a new diesel desulphurization unit in addition to upgrading and modifying its existing equipment to allow it to process more crude oil. The first part of the project is in response to new federal regulations that limit sulphur in diesel fuel to no more that 15 parts per million by June 1, 2006. Last year, Suncor announced a long-term agreement with Shell Canada Products Inc. to treat Shell’s Sarnia refinery’s diesel fuel.
In combination with this desulphurization project, Suncor will also modify the refinery to permit the processing of additional crude oil from parent Suncor’s Oil Sands Plant in Fort McMurray, Alberta. This modification will increase refinery output by about 15 per cent, or approximately 10,000 to 13,000 barrels per day.
“We take pride in sharing our successes with our neighbours,” said Bailey. “We’re on track to lower sulphur levels in our diesel fuels, which is good news for our customers and Ontarians. Our donation to Bluewater Health reaffirms our commitment to Sarnia-Lambton, to help make our community a better place to live and work.”
Suncor is an Imagine Caring Company which means each year it donates one per cent of average domestic pre-tax profits to community initiatives and charitable donations. Most of these donations are managed by the Suncor Energy Foundation. In 2003, the Suncor Energy Foundation donated $5.3 million to charitable organizations across Canada. Of this, $906,000 was donated to causes in Sarnia and Southwestern Ontario, including The Nature Way, the United Way, the CPET program at Lambton College, Lawrence Centre for the Arts and several local charities supported through employee initiatives.
Suncor Energy Products Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Suncor Energy Inc., an integrated energy company. In addition to a refinery in Sarnia, Suncor Energy Products has a network of 281 Sunoco-branded retail and Fleet Fuel cardlock sites and has a 50 per cent joint venture interest in over 200 Pioneer and UPI retail sites. Suncor Energy Products Inc. manufactures, distributes and markets transportation fuels, heating oils and petrochemicals primarily in Ontario. For more information, see the Sunoco website at www.sunoco.ca or www.suncor.com.
The Suncor Energy Foundation is a private, non-profit charitable foundation established to manage and administer the company’s community contributions through donations to Canadian charitable organizations
For more information, contact:
Jason Vaillant
Suncor Energy Products – Sarnia
(519) 383-3691