Keyera Corp. is investing $210 million in a turbo expander at its Rimbey gas plant in Alberta’s Pembina North region to step up ethane and natural gas recovery.
The natural gas processor based in Calgary said the project includes installation of a new 400 million cubic-feet-per-day turbo expander and construction of a 34 kilometre, six-inch diameter ethane pipeline to connect to the Alberta Ethane Gathering System.
The project will allow Keyera to recover over 90% of the ethane at the Rimbey gas plant as it extracts up to 20,000 barrels per day.
Keyera will sell the ethane to a large, un-identified consumer in Alberta under a long-term sales agreement, and process gas for a large unidentified producer on a fee-for-service basis.
The company said the turbo expander will be run in place of the existing lean oil NGL recovery system, but in the future “with relatively low additional capital investment,” there would be an opportunity to run both the lean oil system and the turbo expander unit, which would significantly increase the plant’s processing capacity.
Pending approvals, the construction phase is anticipated to begin in the fourth quarter of, with start-up expected in late 2014.
The Rimbey gas plant is Keyera’s largest natural gas processing facility.
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