CALGARY, Alberta, Sept. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Pembina
Pipeline Corporation ("Pembina" or
"the Company") (TSX: PPL; NYSE: PBA) is pleased to announce that it
has commissioned several key growth projects within its Gas
Services and Conventional Pipeline businesses, placing
approximately $650 million assets
into service. Additionally, Pembina is providing an update on other key
growth projects on-going across its business.
"I am proud of the work Pembina
employees have done to commission such large scale energy
infrastructure projects," said Mick
Dilger, Pembina's President
and Chief Executive Officer. "I am also very pleased to advise that
a large portion of these projects were placed into service on-time
and under budget. Further, and most importantly, was the exemplary
safety record that was maintained across all of these projects from
construction through to commissioning."
Gas Services
Pembina's Gas Services business
successfully commissioned 260 million cubic feet per day ("MMcf/d")
of new processing capacity and pipeline infrastructure in
Alberta and Saskatchewan for a combined capital investment
of approximately $320 million, which
represents a seven percent savings versus the original project
budget.
In late August, Pembina safely
commissioned its Saturn II facility, a 200 MMcf/d 'twin' of the
Company's existing Saturn I Facility ("Saturn II"),ahead of
schedule and under budget. Saturn II is an example of recognizing
value achieved through leveraging an existing 'Pembina template' design, which supported the
successful and safe execution of this project. Further
demonstrating the benefits of the Company's integrated service
offering, the natural gas liquids ("NGL") volumes produced at
Saturn II will also be transported on Pembina's Peace Pipeline system and will be
fractionated at Pembina's
Redwater facility.
Pembina's Saskatchewan Ethane
Extraction plant ("SEEP") was commissioned in late August. SEEP was
acquired as part of the Vantage Pipeline acquisition which closed
in October of 2014. This facility has a deep cut processing
capacity of 60 MMcf/d and ethane plus fractionation capabilities
which supports up to approximately 4,500 barrels per day ("bpd") of
ethane extraction. The ethane volumes produced at SEEP will be
transported under a long-term, fee-for-service agreement on
Pembina's Vantage Pipeline. This
project was successfully and safely completed on-time and under
budget.
Additionally, Pembina placed
into service the gathering pipeline associated with the 100 MMcf/d
Resthaven Expansion project (the "Resthaven Expansion"). This
project consists of a 12 inch diameter 28 kilometer pipeline with
capacity to deliver 100 MMcf/d that will connect a customer's
condensate recovery plant into Pembina's Resthaven facility. In advance of
the expected in-service of the Resthaven Expansion, this newly
commissioned pipeline will be able to provide additional gas
volumes for Pembina's existing
Resthaven facility. Construction of the Resthaven Expansion is
underway and is expected be in-service by mid-2016. Once the
Resthaven Expansion is complete, the facility's gross gas
processing capacity will increase to 300 MMcf/d.
With the Saturn II and SEEP facilities in-service, Pembina's Gas Services capacity has increased
26 percent from 1,003 MMcf/d to 1,263 MMcf/d. "This additional
capacity supports Pembina in
becoming one of Canada's largest
third party gas processors," said Jaret
Sprott, Pembina's Vice
President, Gas Services. "These plants provide increased exposure
to attractive Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin multi-zone geology
and represents Pembina's entry
into Saskatchewan's prolific
Bakken resource play."
Conventional Pipelines
At the beginning of September, Pembina commissioned the high vapour pressure
("HVP"), or NGL, portion of the Peace and Northern Phase II
pipeline expansion ("Phase II HVP"), and expects to have the
pipeline fully commissioned by the end of 2015. In conjunction with
the low vapour pressure ("LVP"), or crude oil and condensate
portion of the expansion that was placed into service in April of
this year ("Phase II LVP"), the Peace and Northern Phase II
pipeline expansion (the "Phase II Expansion") is now in-service. In
aggregate, the Phase II Expansion and all associated laterals
represents an approximately $670
million of capital investment, of which approximately
$330 million is attributable to the
Phase II HVP project and approximately $340
million is attributable to the Phase II LVP project. The
Phase II Expansion is underpinned by 5 to 10 year contracts with
substantial take-or-pay commitments from approximately 40
customers. The Phase II Expansion is expected to increase Peace and
Northern systems' capacity by 108,000 bpd in aggregate. As a result
of commissioning the Phase II Expansion, total capacity in
Pembina's Conventional Pipeline
business will increase by 15 percent to approximately 830,000 bpd.
"These expansions provide much needed hydrocarbon liquids
transportation capacity for the Western Canadian Sedimentary
Basin," said Jason Wiun,
Pembina's Vice President,
Conventional Pipelines. "Pembina
is well positioned to support future production growth through our
existing asset base and through our committed growth projects that
have significant embedded expansion potential."
"With the commissioning of Phase II Expansion, including the LVP
portion placed into service in April, and the approximately
$320 million of new Gas Service's
assets, this represents approximately $1
billion of new fee-for-service supported infrastructure,"
said Scott Burrows, Pembina's Vice President, Finance & Chief
Financial Officer."This large scale investment helps to continue to
grow Pembina's low risk
fee-for-service asset base and demonstrates the value associated
with Pembina's sector leading
secured growth portfolio."
Project Updates
In the coming months, Pembina
will be commissioning a number of projects in its NGL Midstream
business. Early in 2016, Pembina
plans to commission the twin of its existing 73,000 bpd ethane plus
fractionator ("RFS II"). The completion of RFS II will further
strengthen Pembina's position as
Western Canada's largest owner of
fractionation capacity. Additionally, in early 2016, a small scale
debottlenecking initiative to modestly increase propane plus
throughput capacity at Pembina's
existing Redwater Fractionator is expected to be commissioned.
Finally, at Pembina's Corunna site, construction and commissioning
of new brine pond, storage, rail, and truck infrastructure is well
under-way, the new assets are expected to be phased into service
through the remainder of 2015 and early 2016.
Pembina would also like to
provide an update for the regulatory process associated with the
$220 million expansion to pipeline
infrastructure in northeast British
Columbia ("B.C.") (the "NEBC Expansion Project"). On
August 26th 2015,
Pembina withdrew its application
for an expedited environmental review by the B.C. Environmental
Assessment Office ("B.C. E.A.O"). Pembina's application was withdrawn to ensure
that all First Nations and public concerns are identified and
fulsomely addressed. Pembina
intends to file a project application with the B.C. E.A.O in late
2015 and will be proceeding with preparing an environmental
assessment certificate through the B.C. environmental assessment
process, both of which will help support the project moving forward
successfully. The anticipated schedule for the NEBC Expansion
Project remains unchanged with an expected in-service date of Q4
2017, subject to regulatory and environmental approvals.
About Pembina
Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline
Corporation is a leading transportation and midstream service
provider that has been serving North
America's energy industry for over 60 years. Pembina owns and operates an integrated system
of pipelines that transport various hydrocarbon liquids including
conventional and synthetic crude oil, heavy oil and oil sands
products, condensate (diluent) and NGL produced in western
Canada and ethane produced in
North Dakota. The Company also
owns and operates gas gathering and processing facilities and an
oil and NGL infrastructure and logistics business. With facilities
strategically located in western Canada and in NGL markets in eastern
Canada and the U.S., Pembina also offers a full spectrum of
midstream and marketing services that spans across its operations.
Pembina's integrated assets and
commercial operations enable it to offer services needed by the
energy sector along the hydrocarbon value chain.
Forward-Looking Statements & Information
This document contains certain forward-looking statements and
information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") that are
based on Pembina's current
expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions in light of
its experience and its perception of historical trends. In some
cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology
such as "schedule", "will", "expects", "plans", "intends",
"should", "anticipates", "estimates", "could" and similar
expressions suggesting future events or future performance.
In particular, this document contains forward-looking
statements, pertaining to, without limitation, the following:
Pembina's corporate strategy;
planning, capital expenditure estimates, schedules, expected
capacity, incremental volumes, in-service dates, processing,
transportation, fractionation, and services commitments and
contracts and operations with respect to Company projects, the
development and expected timing of new business initiatives and
growth opportunities and the impact thereof, and anticipated
corporate efficiencies and synergies.
The forward-looking statements are based on certain
assumptions that Pembina has made
in respect thereof as at the date of this news release regarding,
among other things: that counterparties will comply with contracts
in a timely manner; that there are no unforeseen events preventing
the performance of contracts or the completion of Company projects;
that all required regulatory and environmental approvals can be
obtained on the necessary terms in a timely manner; that there are
no unforeseen material costs relating to the facilities which are
not recoverable from customers; ongoing utilization and future
expansion, development, growth and performance of Pembina's business and asset base; future
levels of oil and natural gas development in proximity to
Pembina's pipelines and other
assets (which could be affected by, among other things, possible
changes to applicable royalty and tax regimes); interest and tax
rates; prevailing regulatory, tax and environmental laws and
regulations; maintenance of operating margins; and future financing
capability and sources.
Although Pembina believes
the expectations and material factors and assumptions reflected in
these forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the date
hereof, there can be no assurance that these expectations, factors
and assumptions will prove to be correct. These forward-looking
statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject
to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties including,
but not limited to: the regulatory environment and decisions; the
impact of competitive entities and pricing; labour and material
shortages; reliance on key relationships and agreements; the
strength and operations of the oil and natural gas production
industry and related commodity prices; non-performance or default
by counterparties to agreements which Pembina or one or more of its affiliates has
entered into in respect of its business; actions by governmental or
regulatory authorities including changes in tax laws and treatment,
changes in royalty rates or increased environmental regulation;
unexpected increases in capital costs; adverse general economic and
market conditions in Canada,
North America and elsewhere,
including changes in interest rates, foreign currency exchange
rates and commodity prices; lower than anticipated results of
operations from Pembina's business
initiatives; the ability of Pembina to raise sufficient capital (or to
raise capital on favourable terms) to complete future projects and
satisfy future commitments; and certain other risks detailed from
time to time in Pembina's public
disclosure documents available at www.sedar.com. This list
of risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive.
Readers are cautioned that events or circumstances could
cause results to differ materially from those predicted, forecasted
or projected. The forward-looking statements contained in this
document speak only as of the date of this document. Pembina does not undertake any obligation to
publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements or
information contained herein, except as required by applicable
laws. The forward-looking statements contained in this document are
expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.
Pembina Pipeline® is a registered trademark of
Pembina Pipeline Corporation.
For further information: Investor Relations: Ian McAvity / Chelsy
Hoy, (403) 231-3156, 1-855-880-7404, e-mail:
investor-relations@pembina.com, www.pembina.com; Media Inquiries:
Tanis Fiss, Supervisor, External
Communications, (403) 817-7131, e-mail: media@pembina.com