The Empire Club of Canada
Monday, January 26, 2015
The Empire Club of Canada Presents:
Samer Salameh, Executive Chairman of Pacific Future Energy With Building Our Future and Protecting our Coast: Why Building the World’s Greenest Refinery is the Key to Unlocking Asian Markets
The issue: Canada has a problem. We are blessed with a resource oil needed by people around the world. However, we are selling 97 per cent of our oil exports to one customer, the United States, and we are selling those exports at a significant discount. We do this because it’s what the pipeline infrastructure in North America obliges us to do. Refineries in the U.S. Midwest are currently making an average of $25 a barrel profit refining Canadian product.
Expanding access for Canadian oil products to new markets, especially those with growing demand in Asia, is the clear solution. This is becoming increasingly important as we experience declining demand from the United States. The key to opening up these markets in a manner that is acceptable to the majority of British Columbians, as well as to First Nations, is through a near net zero carbon emissions refinery built in true partnership with First Nations, delivering jobs and economic benefits for Canadians, while protecting our coast.
Biography: Samer F. Salameh, Executive Chairman of Pacific Future Energy, has more than 20 years of management experience leading private and public companies in the United States and Latin America. Mr. Salameh has a very well known reputation in the international telecommunications field as a distinguished marketing strategist, a turn around specialist and a broker of multi billion dollar mergers and acquisitions. He currently leads the Telecom practice and new business development at Grupo Salinas, a multi billion industrial conglomerate operating in 11 countries in the Americas.
Previously, Mr. Salameh managed the development and deployment of complex infrastructure projects for some of the world’s leading investors, including Carlos Slim, Grupo Carso America Movil, and Ricardo Salinas, Grupo Salinas. Most recently, in South America, he led the deployment of one of the largest greenfield fibre optics infrastructure projects in the world for Grupo Salinas. Mr. Salameh holds a Masters Degree in International Business from the Fletcher School and a BS in Management and Economics from Polytechnic University
Speaker:
Samer Salameh, Executive Chairman of Pacific Future Energy
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