One door closes, another opens up

By Collin Gallant on March 1, 2018.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant

A provincial diversification grant lost by one local company, but won by a major pipeline company to build a chemical plant near Edmonton, will result in a knock-on investment of $120 million north of Medicine Hat.

Pembina Pipelines announced last week in its year-end report its board has approved a 30,000 barrel per day expansion to its propane facilities at Empress, Alta.

The added fractionation facility and terminal could be operating by 2020 and would give the company higher supply volume to a plastics plant the company is building in Sturgeon County.

The production could also move to Pembina’s planned export terminal in Prince Rupert, which would cost $250 million and come into service at the same time.

Pempina recorded a profit of $891 million in 2017, according to the year-end results, representing a 91 per cent increase over 2016.

Tht’s partly due to addition of assets of Veresen, which were merged during the year, as well as higher pieplien volumes.

In late 2016, province awarded $500 million in royalty credits under a petrochemcial diversification program to help the business cases of adding major refining capacity in the province.

Local operator Methanex was one of 16 firms to apply to the program that eventually awarded varying grants to Pembina and a separate propane-to-polypopylene plant proposed by Inter Pipeline. That plant, estimated to cost $3.5 billion, will be located north of Edmonton.

Pembina is also on track this year to complete its previously announced million barrel ethane storage facility in Burstall, Sask. at a cost of $130 million.

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