Testimonials

“To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Ian MacGregor, I am 74 years old. I have spent my working life inventing, building and owning large pieces of energy infrastructure. I have worked around the world on different ideas always as an owner.

The projects I enjoy most are technically complicated and large. I have been responsible for and recently completed two megaprojects. The Sturgeon Refinery and the Alberta Carbon Trunk line.

The ACTL is the world’s largest system for capture, transportation and sequestration of man made CO2 with an installed capacity of 15 million metric tonnes per year. It was built at a cost of $1.2 billion which is about the same amount as spent on the Canadian Pacific Railway if its historic costs were inflated to today. It was conceived on a napkin in my office and is now in full, profitable, operation.

The Sturgeon Refinery was also a napkin invention in my office. It was built at a cost of about $12 billion. To put that amount into perspective its about what the Panama Canal would cost if its historical costs of construction were inflated to today. It is also now in profitable operation.

These types of projects always come with significant technical problems. The Sturgeon project incorporates the world’s largest “Blue” hydrogen plant which is a gasifier using heavy bottoms as a feedstock to make hydrogen for the refinery and pure CO2 for sequestration.

This part of the plant didn’t work and wouldn’t when we tried to start it up. After many, many interactions with the Licensor, I reached the conclusion that they weren’t going to be able to fix it. We took over and organized a team of Albertans to complete this essential task. Without a reliable gasifier, the refinery could not operate.

Andy was a key member of the technical team that eventually cracked the code and got the gasifier operating reliably. This job was as close to the Manhattan Project as an engineer in today’s world gets to work. Like the Manhattan Project, it was a high-stakes game. It was an emergency of the first order and the stress to perform quickly was enormous. To put it into context, while the gasifier wasn’t operational we were losing about $1 million per day in margin. I think it’s fair to say that without Andy’s effort, we would not have been successful.

I have the highest regard for his technical competence as well as his no-nonsense demeanor. Further, he keeps his sense of humor even under the worst conditions.

Please email me if you have any questions in this regard. ”

Ian MacGregor

President, North West Refining Inc.