The champagne was put on ice in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland Tuesday after the province selected North West Upgrading for negotiations toward a deal to handle 75,000 barrels per day of bitumen.
The corks will pop later this year — if and when a formal contract is signed, which would mean a spring 2011 start on construction of the upgrader project that was halted in 2007.
About 3,000 workers will be needed in each of the three planned phases.
