| Provident entered the midstream business in 2003 by acquiring the Redwater natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionation and storage facility and a group of associated assets. The assets, which make up Provident's Redwater NGL System, consist of:
- the Redwater NGL fractionation and storage facility
- a 43 percent ownership in the Younger NGL extraction plant in Taylor, British Columbia
- a proprietary Liquids Gathering System (LGS) pipeline that transports NGLs from the Younger plant and other gas plants into the Pembina Peace Pipeline system to Redwater.
Redwater NGL fractionation and storage facility
The Redwater NGL fractionation and storage facility is located 45 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, Alberta. It is situated in one of the four main hubs for NGLs in North America, and across the river from a major petrochemical processing and refining area.
The Redwater facility provides approximately 30 percent of Western Canada's NGL fractionation capacity. It is also among the most modern and cost-efficient of its kind in Western Canada.
Key attributes of the facility include that it:
- has the capacity to fractionate 65,000 barrels per day of NGLs
- has NGL salt cavern storage capacity of six million barrels
- is the newest fractionator in Western Canada, with the lowest operating costs
- is one of two facilities in Western Canada that is capable of processing ethane-plus
- has the ability to process high sulphur NGL streams
- offers proprietary and third party storage options
- has multiple receipt and delivery points
- has the largest NGL rail rack in Western Canada (34 spots), a 198-plus NGL railcar switching yard, and direct access to CN rail
- has a 300-car rail switching yard for condensate cars
- has 16 condensate unloading rail spots
- has propane and butane truck loading/unloading facilities
- is supported by an experienced marketing and operations team.
Most of the capacity of the Redwater system is contracted under long-term fee-for-service arrangements with major gas producers and petrochemical companies.
Younger NGL extraction plant
The Younger NGL Extraction Plant is the sole straddle plant located in British Columbia. A straddle plant “straddles” large natural gas pipelines and extracts natural gas liquids from natural gas before re-injecting the natural gas into the pipeline. Younger is located at Taylor, near Fort St. John in Northeastern British Columbia. It straddles three main transmission systems owned by Duke Energy Gas Transmission, Williams Energy (Canada) Inc. and Alliance Pipeline. Provident owns 43 percent of the plant which is operated by Taylor NGL Ltd. Key attributes of the Younger NGL Extraction Plant include:
-
38,500 barrels per day (bbl/d) capacity, 16, 700 bbl/d of which is net to Provident. NGLs processed at Younger are transported to the Redwater facility in Fort Saskatchewan through the LGS system and Pembina Peace Pipeline.
-
The Younger facility is a key supply hub for BC: Provident has secured long-term, dedicated supply from the McMahon and W. Stoddart facilities.
Liquids Gathering System (LGS) pipeline
The LGS pipeline, a 565 kilometer proprietary gathering system, begins just south of Fort St. John and runs along the border between Alberta and British Columbia. The gathering system is connected to some of the more significant natural gas plants in Western Canada that produce natural gas liquids and is located in an area with strong exploration and drilling activity. Provident owns 100 percent of the pipeline, which is non-regulated. There is potential to expand the pipeline to include new natural gas fields. Key attributes of the LGS include:
|
