NOVA Chemicals utilises ethane from Bakken Shale

NOVA Chemicals Corporation announced that the first barrels of ethane supplied from natural gas associated with oil production from Bakken Shale are being utilised at its Joffre, Alberta complex.  

The ethane was produced at Hess Corporation's Tioga, North Dakota plant and transported across the border into Alberta via the Vantage Pipeline. The Vantage Pipeline connects to the Alberta Ethane Gathering System (AEGS) in Empress, Alberta for the final journey to Joffre. NOVA Chemicals is the contract operator of both AEGS and the Vantage Pipeline.

The Vantage Pipeline has an initial design capacity of 40,000 bpd but is expandable to greater than 60,000 bpd, a volume that reflects more than 20% of Alberta's existing installed ethylene production capacity. Ethane extracted from associated gas produced from Bakken Shale is expected to be a growing and stable feedstock supply source for the Alberta petrochemical industry.

The delivery marks an important milestone in the diversification NOVA’s  ethane sources for the region.