Inter Pipeline has begun construction of the Heartland Petrochemical Complex, a facility designed to convert locally sourced, low-cost propane into 525,000 tonnes per year of polypropylene, a high value, easy to transport plastic used in the manufacturing of a wide range of finished products. The Heartland Petrochemical Complex will cost approximately $4.1 billion to construct, and will consist of a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) and a polypropylene (PP) facility and (CUB) central utility building.

Inter Pipeline was awarded $200 million in royalty credits from the Government of Alberta’s Petrochemical Diversification Program, in support of the complex. Construction is underway, with more than 3,000 pilings in the ground, and completion is scheduled for late 2021.

A new Canadian plant has been built in Strathcona County under a long-term agreement for Air Products to supply Shell Scotford with hydrogen and steam and to supply hydrogen to North West Redwater Partnership Sturgeon Refinery. The facility produces 150 million standard cubic feet per day of hydrogen. Project investment is $300 million and was completed in fall 2016.

MEG Energy owns a 1,200 acre parcel of land in Strathcona County, and has disclosed plans to develop commercial processing facilities, including a Diluent Recovery Unit and partial upgrading facilities. MEG also owns a smaller parcel of land in the Industrial development area of Lamont County, adjacent to the Bruderheim Energy Rail Terminal where they are developing the HI-Q® demonstration facilities to advance their proprietary HI-Q® technology.

The ATCO Heartland Energy Storage and Logistics Centre encompasses more than 600 acres of continuous land in Strathcona County. The project currently includes four salt caverns for hydrocarbon storage, with the capacity to store approximately 400,000 cubic metres of propane, butane, ethylene, and natural gas condensate. Two additional caverns are anticipated to be completed in the near future.

The Grand Rapids Pipeline Project was completed and began operations in the fall of 2017, connecting crude oil resources from the west Athabasca oil sands area to the Edmonton areas (Strathcona County) to meet growing energy demands. The 460 km dual pipeline system consists of 36-inch pipeline to transport blended bitumen from Northern Alberta to the Edmonton Area and a 20-inch pipeline to transport diluent from the Edmonton Area back to the Fort McMurray area. Total product moved will be up to 590,000 barrels per day of crude and 330,000 barrels per day of diluent.

The Heartland Pipeline Project is a 36-inch pipeline that will aid in the transport of up to 900,000 barrels of crude oil from Strathcona County to the Hardisty Alberta hub. As they have progressed through the regulatory process and advanced Project planning, TransCanada has adjusted their construction schedule to respond to current market conditions and continues to work with its long–term committed shippers. 

The TC Terminals Project will provide tank storage of up to 1.9 million barrels of crude oil and will facilitate the efficient movement of crude oil from Northern Alberta by providing a connection to access markets elsewhere in North America. The TC Terminals Project will be constructed in alignment with the in-service date of the Heartland Pipeline.

TransCanada has also acquired lands in Strathcona County with access to existing CN and CP rail lines. The lands are approximately 2.5 km’s east of TransCanada’s TC Terminals Project, a crude oil batch accumulation and storage facility.

In summer of 2017, Pembina Pipeline Corporation launched the $250 million Canadian Diluent Hub (CDH), a large-scale condensate and diluent terminal at its Heartland Terminal site near Strathcona County.

The CDH development will include 500,000 barrels of above ground storage, multiple inbound and outbound pipeline connections, plus associated pumping and metering facilities. CDH is designed to augment Pembina’s existing diluent handling facilities in the Fort Saskatchewan area and offer diluent services for oil sands customers.

Rezoning was approved in fall of 2017 to allow for an extension to Keyera’s existing salt cavern storage facilities. Keyera has also purchased all Sasol land holdings and any information regarding its use will be shared in future updates.

Quest Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project is a joint venture of Shell, Chevron, Marathon, Government of Alberta and the Government of Canada.

Now operational, this $1.35 billion project captures, transports and stores (permanently underground) over one million tonnes of CO2 a year from Shell’s Scotford Upgrader in Strathcona County – the equivalent to taking 175,000 North American cars off the road each year. Once the CO2 is captured from the three hydrogen units, it is be transported by pipeline up to 80 km north to the chosen injection wells.

The 447 km Norlite Pipeline was completed and in-service as of June 2017. The 24-inch pipeline is capable of shipping 270,000 barrels per day of diluent from the Enbridge Stonefell site to the Suncor East Tank farm near Fort McMurray, and has the potential to be expanded up to 400,000 barrels per day with the addition of pump stations.

The Kinder Morgan Base Line Terminal is a joint venture with Keyera Corp. It is a crude oil storage terminal located on land at Keyera’s Alberta Enviro Fuels facility in Sherwood Park, Alberta.

As of January, 2018 the first 4 of 12 tanks (total capacity of 4.8 million barrels) have commenced service. There is potential for the terminal to expand its operations by another 1.8 million barrels in the future.

The Gibson Edmonton Terminal recently expanded to 1.7 million barrels of existing storage, with long-term potential to increase capacity by an additional 2 million barrels – subject to future market conditions.

Canadian Natural (CNRL) purchased assets from Shell, valued in the range of $12.7 billion. This includes ownership of the Athabasca Oilsands Project, and 70 per cent of both the Scotford upgrader, and the Quest CSS project. Shell will maintain ownership and operation of their refinery and chemical plants in Strathcona County, in addition to their existing land holdings, and will continue to operate the Scotford upgrader and Quest CSS.