The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, Feb. 8, edition that Canada's struggling oil industry is looking to what is known as partial upgrading technology to thin its sludge-like crude and squeeze more of it through congested pipelines. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe reports that Alberta in January announced a $440-million loan guarantee for a $2-billion partial upgrading facility planned by Value Creation. The Edmonton-area plant would turn 77,500 barrels a day (b/d) of diluted bitumen into medium crude oil and low-sulphur diesel, starting in 2022. Producing a medium grade would give Alberta more of a different type of crude to sell that does not compete with abundant United States light shale oil. "Our crude oil would have a tailor fit to refineries, so we would have no problem to find the market," Value Creation chief executive officer Columba Yeung said. Partial upgrading is not yet done on a commercial scale anywhere. It removes sulphur and other impurities to create lighter grades of oil that do not require dilution to move through pipelines, lowering costs and making shipping more efficient. "There's a case to be made for product diversification," says IHS vice-president Kevin Birn.