Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) are the hydrocarbon liquids contained within natural gas. NGLs are extracted from the natural gas stream at extraction plants, such as those at Empress, Alberta, and Younger, British Columbia, and at fractionation facilities such as those at Redwater, Alberta and Sarnia, Ontario. NGLs have a higher value when they have been separated out from the natural gas stream.

Provident operates a complex NGL value chain. We source natural gas throughout the Western Canada basin for our extraction plants. We then transport the NGL mix to one of our fractionation facilities through one of a number of pipelines that we either own or can access through unique long-term contracts. At the fractionation facility, we fractionate, or separate the NGLs into consumer-ready products. We inventory those products in storage facilities for eventual distribution by pipeline, truck or rail to markets throughout North America.

The NGLs that Provident processes include:

• Ethane (C2), which is used by the petrochemical industry to produce ethylene and polyethylene, which are building blocks for plastics and other materials.
• Propane (C3), which is used for residential heating and agricultural crop drying, as well as many other purposes.
• Butane (C4), which is either blended with condensate for use as a diluent in Alberta, or sold into U.S. markets.
• Condensate (C5), which is used by bitumen and heavy oil producers as a diluent (condensate decreases the viscosity of bitumen and heavy oil, enabling these substances to flow easily through pipelines).

Provident entered the midstream business in 2003 by acquiring the Redwater NGL fractionation facility and a group of associated assets. We greatly expanded our business in 2005 by acquiring EnCana's entire NGL business.