By Medicine Hat News on February 29, 2020.
Construction has begun this month on a pipeline near the Empress straddle plant complex that will feed a new rail loading facility that will kick off in March, the company behind the $120-million project said Thursday. Pembina Pipeline is building a new propane factionation unit at its facility in northeast Cypress County, near Burstall, Sask. That new production will be carried on rail – via the Great Sandhills shortline then CP Mainline – to market and support a propane-to-plastics facility near Edmonton. The $120-million project in Empress is set to go into service in late 2020, the company said in Thursday’s year-end financial reporting. A separate $120-million project to build co-generation electricity production at the Empress facility is advancing to detailed engineering in early 2020 toward a planned commissioning date in 2022. Reporting its 2019 results, Pembina’s fourth-quarter earnings fell 61 per cent to $145 million, due largely to an impairment charge. Revenue rose by $20 million to $1.75 billion in the period. 6