First, I would say that the existing refinery assets and chemical industry that we have in Sarnia that relies on crude oil from Alberta is really at the core of our complex.
What we've done over the last 10 years is we have looked at opportunities to grow that complex, realizing that we haven't been receiving a lot of investment in traditional chemistry.
We have seen the movement for more renewable energy sources. By being able to put forward brownfield sites, by being able to re-tool our workforce to become more common with fermentation processes, by working with our agricultural industries, we've been able to build infrastructure for bio-based companies.
We've also received a lot of support from our existing industries. We also realized there were opportunities around shale gas. We had a large shale gas conference in Sarnia about eight years ago. We really started to promote the benefits of shale gas.
NOVA was in serious trouble in our area with their operations, and it's really shale gas that has enabled them to have a competitive feedstock. They recently had a large ceremony to celebrate the turnaround of their operations in our area.
The key thing in terms of refining bitumen is that in a barrel of oil the real benefits are in the downstream. I would suggest to you that Imperial Oil makes more on their ethylene operations in Sarnia than they do on the refining of gasoline and diesel and those things.
On the Dow side, there used to be 20 petrochemical plants. We're repopulating those brownfield sites with new petrochemical operations. Some of them are going to be bio-based and some of them are going to be hydrocarbon-based.
Marcellus shale gas is really generating a lot of new interest in our area. We also have a strong commitment locally to try to get an upgrader. It may not come from local companies. We may have to find a new type of partner.