13 June 2014
Details
today announced that the first barrels of
ethane
supplied from natural gas associated
with oil production from
Bakken Shale
are being utilized at its Joffre, Alberta complex.
The ethane was produced at
and transported across the border into Alberta via
the Vantage Pipeline.
The Vantage Pipeline connects to
the Alberta Ethane Gathering System (AEGS)
in Empress, Alberta for the final journey to Joffre.
NOVA Chemicals is the contract operator of both
AEGS and the Vantage Pipeline.
The Vantage Pipeline has an initial design capacity of
40,000 bpd but is expandable to greater than 60,000 bpd,
a volume that reflects more than 20% of
Alberta’s existing installed ethylene production capacity.
Ethane extracted from associated gas produced from
Bakken Shale is expected to be
a growing and stable feedstock supply source
for the Alberta petrochemical industry.
Todd Karran,
NOVA Chemicals Acting CEO and CFO.
“The introduction of Bakken Shale-based ethane
into the feedstock diet at Joffre marks
an important milestone in
the diversification of our ethane sources
for the region and our NOVA 2020 strategy
to capitalize on North American demand,”
“The new supply sources we recently began to use,
together with those currently in development,
should enable us to
* run our existing polyethylene plants at full capacity,
* as well as support our PE1 Expansion project
in Joffre and position us well for potential further growth.”
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