Keyera to own interest in new deep-cut gas plant

Keyera Corp., Calgary, will take a 35% stake with Bellatrix Exploration Ltd., Calgary, in a deep-cut natural gas processing plant and related pipelines currently under construction by Bellatrix in the Alder Flats in west-central Alberta.

Bellatrix will operate the turboexpander plant and develop it in two phases.

Phase 1 will have design inlet capacity of 110 MMcfd and be on stream by July 2015. The pipelines being built consist of a 16-in. raw-gas gathering line, a 4-in. condensate line, and a fuel-gas line to serve Bellatrix field compression and the O’Chiese First Nation. These pipelines are to be in service at the same time as Phase 1.

Phase 2 will add design inlet capacity of 110 MMcfd with a targeted on stream date in second-quarter 2016. The plant will be capable of extracting ethane-rich NGLs from the raw-gas stream.

Bellatrix estimates the total cost at about $230 million (Can.). Keyera said it will pay its share of the costs to build the plant and pipelines, including its share of costs incurred to Dec. 31 for the plant, which the company anticipates to be about $23 million.