Petrochemicals and Downstream Energy

Alberta is the largest producer of Bitumen, conventional Crude Oil, Synthetic Crude Oil, Natural Gas and Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) in Canada. Owing to its proximity and connectivity to some of the lowest cost hydrocarbon feedstock in the world, Sturgeon County is an ideal place to construct a petrochemical, oil refining or partial upgrading facility.

Home • Key Industries • Petrochemicals

Operated by Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline, the Redwater Fractionation Site (RFS) is the largest natural gas fractionation complex in Canada, and fourth largest in North America. RFS has 18 NGL salt storage caverns and an aggregate capacity of ~210,000 bpd.

The North West Redwater (NWR) Sturgeon Refinery, the first to be built in Alberta in more than 30 years, will produce 80,000 bbls/d of value-added products such as Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel and Diluent/Naphtha.

The Nutrien Redwater Facility occupies 372 hectares along the North Saskatchewan River on the east side of Sturgeon County. The site directly employs over 500 people while producing 1.9 million tonnes of nitrogen-based nutrients annually.

Canada Kuwait Petrochemical Corporation (CKPC), a 50/50 joint venture between Kuwait's Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC) and Pembina Pipeline Corporation, are moving forward with a $4.5 billion-dollar integrated propane dehydrogenation and polypropylene (PDH-PP) complex adjacent to Pembina’s existing RFS operations in Sturgeon County. The facility will produce 550,000 tonnes/year of polymer-grade propylene from a feedstock of about 23,000 barrels/day of Alberta-produced propane.

Petrochemical plants convert natural resources such as crude oil, natural gas, ore and minerals into products for a wide range of applications. They produce many important building blocks for industry processes, including ethylene, propylene, butadiene, and aromatics. Abundant, cost-advantaged petrochemical feedstocks can be sourced from prolific liquids-rich gas formations such as the Montney or Duvernay, or from Alberta’s vast oilsands deposits. These feedstocks are then transported to the Edmonton region via pipeline where they are further developed into value-added products.

Sturgeon County is a proud and founding member of Alberta’s Industrial Heartland, Canada’s largest hydrocarbon processing region. Alberta's Industrial Heartland has a geographic footprint of 582 square kilometres, with Sturgeon County's portion measuring approximately 100 square kilometres. County lands within the Heartland have been pre-zoned I5, Heavy Industrial, to accelerate development of this important industry within our borders.

Many large-scale value-added energy operations call our County home. The NWR Sturgeon Refinery is in the final stages of commissioning Phase 1 of an 80,000 barrel/day refinery which will produce Ultra-Low-Sulphur-Diesel (ULSD) and diluents using innovative Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technologies. Pembina Pipeline Corporation, along with Petrochemical Industries Company K.S.C. (PIC) of Kuwait, recently announced a positive final investment decision to construct a 550,000 tonne per annum integrated propane dehydrogenation plant and polypropylene (PDH-PP) upgrading facility in Sturgeon County through their joint venture entity, Canada Kuwait Petrochemical Corporation (CKPC).

For more information on opportunities to develop petrochemical, partial upgrading or oil refining operations in Sturgeon County, please contact us.