Parkland moves to pause Burnaby refinery operations due to Trans Mountain shutdown

Photo: The Canadian Press

Parkland Corp. is moving to pause its refinery processing operations in Burnaby due to a lack of crude oil supply from the Trans Mountain pipeline, which has been shut down as a precaution due to the flooding in B.C.

The company says it plans to maintain the refinery, which is a key source of gasoline for the Vancouver area, in ready-mode so that it can resume processing quickly once sufficient crude oil feedstocks become available.

Parkland says its blending, shipping, terminal, and rack activities remain operational.

It says this enables fuels to be off-loaded from ships and rail directly into the refinery, from where they can be stored and distributed.

The company that owns the Trans Mountain pipeline has said it is optimistic the pipeline could be restarted by the end of the week.

Trans Mountain Corp. has 350 people working around the clock to restart the pipeline, which has been shut down since Nov. 14.