TULSA, US: Williams has signed a new long-term gas processing agreement with a producer in the Canadian oil sands. With this, Williams will extract, transport, fractionate, own and market the natural gas liquids (NGLs) and olefins recovered from the offgas at the oil sands producer’s upgrader near Fort McMurray, Alberta. The NGL/olefins recovered are expected to be approximately 12,000 barrels per day (bpd) by mid-2015 and growing to approximately 15,000 bpd by 2018.
The NGL/olefins mixture will be fractionated at Williams’ Redwater facilities. The ethane price risk associated with this deal is mitigated via previously announced long-term agreement to supply Nova Chemicals with up to 17,000 bpd of ethane and ethylene. The propane recovered will be sold into the local propane market and would potentially be used as feedstock at Williams’ proposed propane dehydrogenation (PDH) facility in Canada.
“The scale that we are building here - with fractionation, distribution and storage - gives us the ability to generate significant long-term incremental value from our operations,” said David Chappell, President, Williams Energy Canada.
“The new operations will also further reduce greenhouse gas and sulphur dioxide emissions from the upgraders’ oil sands operations and produce valuable commodities that were previously being burned,” added Chappell.
The offgas processing that Williams pioneered significantly reduces emissions at its customers’ oil sands production facilities. To support the new agreement, Williams plans to build a new liquids extraction plant and supporting facilities at the oil sands producer’s upgrader. It also plans to build an extension of its Boreal pipeline. The total capital expenditures expected for the project is CA$500 million to CA$600 million.
© WOC News