The project is located on land approximately 45km north-east of Edmonton, immediately west of Agrium’s Redwater fertilizer operation in Sturgeon County.

The location offers numerous advantages, including close proximity to major crude oil and diluent pipelines, established infrastructure, and a stable and skilled regional work force. Further, there are several opportunities for by-product synergies with other industrial plants in the Alberta's Industrial Heartland.

The upgrader is designed to handle all variations in bitumen quality in Alberta’s producing regions – Peace River, Athabasca and Cold Lake.

This location is also ideal to form a foundation for future eco-industrial development based on essential feedstocks produced from upgrading and refining bitumen. We expect the products we produce will encourage the development of downstream petrochemical industries.

NWU’s integration of gasification with carbon capture and storage, conversion of low value bitumen to high value products and its central location in the Alberta Industrial Heartland make NWU one of the anchor tenants of Alberta’s development of a hydrocarbon processing cluster. NWU is consistent with Alberta’s strategic direction to concentrate heavy industrial development in this area to support the efficient and responsible development of the province’s resources.

NWU has already completed a number of important and time-consuming steps, including regulatory approvals, front end engineering and procurement of long lead, crucial equipment. NWU’s facility plans to be fully operational in 2013, with Phases 2 and 3 to follow in sequence.