Keyera Corp., Calgary, will increase ethane and NGL recoveries at its Rimbey gas plant in west central Alberta.
The project includes installation of a 400 MMcfd turbo-expander unit and construction of a 34-km, 6-in. ethane pipeline to connect to the Alberta Ethane Gathering System.
It will cost about $214 million and affect an ethane recovery of more than 90% at the Rimbey plant. Upon completion, Keyera expects to extract up to 20,000 b/d of ethane through the turbo expander. The extracted ethane will be sold to a large, unnamed consumer in Alberta.
Subject to regulatory approvals, construction of the plant expansion will begin in fourth-quarter 2012, with start-up in late 2014.
Keyera’s announcement said it has also secured a long-term, fee-for-service processing agreement with a large producer—also unnamed—and is currently in discussions with other producers for processing at the Rimbey gas plant.
Initially, the turbo expander will be run in place of the existing lean-oil NGL recovery system at the plant. In future, however, with “relatively low additional capital investment,” the company said it could run both units, thus increasing processing capacity.
Rimbey is Keyera’s largest gas processing plant. The company operates the plant and holds 97% ownership in it.