Alliance Pipeline, working in conjunction with Aux Sable Liquid Products, continues to be one of the cornerstones of our business. Operating together, Alliance and Aux Sable form a high value, total energy delivery system that is unique from any other long-haul natural gas transportation system in North America.
Alliance Pipeline owns a 3,000-kilometre, 1.325 billion cubic feet per day (firm service), high-pressure natural gas pipeline that connects western Canada’s long-life natural gas reserves to large energy markets in the midwest and, through interconnected pipeline systems, to the northeast United States and eastern Canada.
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Alliance incorporated numerous advances in pipeline technology and design in the construction of its system. For example, the pipeline is 20% to 50% thicker than most operating pipelines, which helps prevent damage from external forces and reduces the possibility of failure caused by corrosion. The buried piping is protected against external corrosion by high integrity coatings such as fusion bond epoxy and cathodic protection. The pipe is internally coated with an epoxy resin that is designed to smooth the pipe wall, leading to increased gas flow. Utilizing the latest in communication and GIS mapping systems, the Alliance pipeline is remotely operated and monitored from a central site. High technology systems include an advanced leak detection mechanism that warns its control center of the even the slightest pipeline disturbance.
From an origination point in northeast British Columbia, Alliance’s large gathering system extends into Alberta, enabling western Canadian gas producers to transport a “rich” natural gas stream, primarily consisting of methane, but also including ethane, propane, butane and condensate, which, collectively, are referred to as “natural gas liquids” or “NGLs”.
As an integral part of this energy delivery system, Aux Sable operates a world scale NGL extraction and fractionation facility located near the terminus of the Alliance pipeline. Aux Sable has the exclusive right to extract and sell the NGLs contained within Alliance’s rich natural gas stream. Transporting NGLs within the gas stream provides for a higher energy value, or heat content, which reduces the volumetric transportation cost.
Alliance’s significant gas gathering footprint in northwestern Alberta and northeastern British Columbia allows Alliance and Aux Sable to offer a suite of cost-effective gas transportation services to meet the needs of the emerging shale plays in northeastern British Columbia and, eventually, the NGL-rich natural gas supplies that could be transported from frontier regions in northern Canada and Alaska. Closer to the US market, and on a more immediate time line, is the emerging Bakken play that extends across southern Saskatchewan and North Dakota which Alliance is able to easily access due to its close proximity.
Alliance employs industry-leading experts, capable of focusing their business strengths to pursue new development and growth opportunities which will increase our overall investment base. Some of the investment opportunities undertaken by Alliance include waste heat power generation, lateral system expansions, increased operating pressures to transport larger volumes of gas supply, and development of a proposed new long-haul pipeline from the US Rocky Mountain region to the Chicago market hub.
For more information visit: www.alliance-pipeline.com