Premier Alison Redford is in town to celebrate Alberta’s first oil sands ethane ethylene production.
Over the past two years, Williams spent between $450-500 million to expand its facilities in Fort McMurray and Sturgeon Country to be able to extract the mixture from oilsands production.
It says they’ll start running this month.
Before this, the commodities were burned off in the upgrader.
The energy infrastructure company says it’s a significant advancement for the petrochemical industry.
About 17,000 barrels per day of the commodities will be sent to NOVA Chemicals in Joffre, Alberta.
Williams says one of the facilities is an oil sands offgas extraction plant near Fort McMurray and the other is its Redwater olefins fractionator near Edmonton.
The ethane/ethylene will be used as feedstock for its polyethylene resins that are converted into products such as bags and liners, food packaging, caps and closures, drums, bulk containers and more.
Premier Alison Redford, Energy Minister Ken Hughes, and David Chappell, President of Williams Energy Canada will meet at the Oil Sands Discovery Centre for the celebration.
October 3rd, 2013
