By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, June 20 -- Taylor NGL LP Wednesday said it would build a $45 million (Can.) natural gas liquids extraction plant at Joffre, Alta.
The Joffre Ethane Extraction Plant (JEEP) will be near NOVA Chemicals:Ltd.'s world-scale Joffre petrochemical complex. JEEP will process the fuel gas being used at the complex to recover ethane, propane, butane, and condensate.
Taylor operates a similar facility at Taylor, BC. The Younger plant is the fourth largest NGL plant in western Canada and the only straddle plant in British Columbia.
JEEP will be rated at 250 MMscfd and will have initial production of 10,400 b/d of gas liquids. Ethane will be sold to NOVA Chemicals and the other liquids will be marketed through a partner.
JEEP will process pipeline-specification gas, the same gas quality used by Alberta industrial and residential consumers. As such, the plant will be a sweet gas processing facility and will have minimal emissions. Construction is due to begin in the fourth quarter if regulatory approvals are granted.
Taylor Pres. Bob Pritchard said, "The project is particularly attractive because of the proximity of the long-term market for production and the association with a major petrochemical company, NOVA Chemicals."
Dan Boivin, president of NOVA Chemicals Corp. olefins/polyolefins business, said, "Historically most of the ethane in Alberta has come from the large extraction plants on the export pipeline sites such as Empress. Now, valuable ethane is being recovered from Alberta natural gas consuming sites, allowing the ethane to be upgraded into petrochemicals."