SemCAMS, a subsidiary of SemGroup® Corporation, has announced plans to construct a new sour gas gathering line adjacent to its existing Northwest Wapiti pipeline. The project is supported by a 10-year term transportation service agreement with NuVista Energy Inc. that is underpinned by a take-or-pay arrangement.
"SemCAMS is pleased with NuVista's commitment and the confidence they have in our ability to handle their liquids-rich Wapiti area gas production," said David Williams, SemCAMS' General Manager. "We expect increasing amounts of natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs) will be attracted to our facilities in the coming years and we understand how important it is to producers that their products get to market reliably and efficiently."
The new gathering system will be called the Northwest Wapiti Loop and consists of a 21 mile, 8 in. sour gas gathering pipeline with 30 million ft3/d of capacity. SemCAMS will own and operate the new pipeline, which is expected to be in service as early as Q2 2015.
The Northwest Wapiti pipeline and the new Northwest Wapiti Loop are located in the heart of the Montney region, where producers are actively drilling for liquids-rich gas. The pipeline will deliver this gas to SemCAMS' Kaybob South 3 (K3) plant, a world-scale sour gas processing facility. SemCAMS and its partners continue to invest in the K3 plant and have recently improved propane recoveries up to 90%, added liquids handling capacity, plan to replace its sulphur recovery unit condenser in June 2014 to improve reliability and added truck and rail loading facilities. The K3 plant currently has available processing capacity. SemCAMS can add an additional 30 billion ft3/d of compression to the Wapiti pipeline if it receives commitments to support the project.
Adapted from press release by Rosalie Starling