Aux Sable to expand Illinois plant’s fractionation capacity

Nov. 4, 2014
Aux Sable Liquid Products LP, Calgary, will expand fractionation capacity at its Channahon, Ill., natural gas plant by 24,500 b/d, the company said. It estimated the cost of the expansion at $130 million.

Aux Sable Liquid Products LP, Calgary, will expand fractionation capacity at its Channahon, Ill., natural gas plant by 24,500 b/d, the company said. It estimated the cost of the expansion at $130 million.

The plant, which began operations in late 2000 (OGJ Online, Dec. 4, 2000), currently can process 2.1 bcfd of gas and produce about 107,000 b/d of NGL products. The expansion will increase NGL production to 131,500 b/d and has a target in-service of mid-2016.

Aux Sable Liquid Products—owned by Enbridge Inc., Veresen Inc., and Williams Partners LP—has been receiving liquids-rich gas streams from the Bakken via the newly built 77-mile Tioga lateral that connects Hess Corp.’s recently expanded 250-MMcfd Tioga gas plant with the Alliance pipeline at Sherwood, ND (OGJ Online, Mar. 24, 2011; Sept. 27, 2011).

The success of Aux Sable’s rich gas premium strategy, said Tim Stauft, president and chief executive officer of Aux Sable, along with increasingly volumes of liquids-rich gas from the Bakken, Duvernay, and Montney plays, has resulted in higher heat-content gas arriving at the inlet of the Channahon plant.

Aux Sable’s expansion will allow the plant to process the new liquids-rich gas contracted for after 2015, Stauft said.

Contact Warren R. True at [email protected].