Keyera Corp. and SemCAMS Midstream, two major midstream players in Western Canada, in mid-May announced they are proceeding with the construction of their joint-venture project — a new NGL and condensate pipeline system out of the liquids-rich Montney and Duvernay plays of Alberta. The planned Key Access Pipeline System would provide the first direct competition for the transportation of NGLs and condensate out of these producing regions, currently dominated by Pembina Pipeline Co. Any and all transportation options for the movement of condensate and other NGLs out of the Montney and surrounding plays will likely be welcomed by Western Canadian natural gas producers, who are looking to capitalize on oil-sands producers’ growing demand for homegrown sources of condensate for use as diluent in bitumen transportation. Today, we provide key details about the project and how it fits into the region’s existing condensate/NGLs market.
Increases in liquids-rich natural gas production from the Montney, Duvernay and other plays have helped to lift Western Canada’s natural gas production fortunes in the past few years. We recently started examining this gas production recovery trend with the opener of our Get Me Out of Here series. The rise in the production of associated liquids, such as condensate, has begun to test the ability to move it all downstream for further processing. The task of getting liquids out of the Montney and Duvernay for a number of years has been handled by Pembina Pipeline Co.’s Peace Pipeline. Back in August 2018, SemsCAMS announced it was working with Plains Midstream Canada, a subsidiary of Plains All American, on a pipeline proposal to move condensate on what was dubbed the Montney to Market liquids pipeline. That plan now has been replaced by the KAPS project, which is now proceeding to development. (The reason for the switch by SemCAMS to working with Keyera is unclear).
Visualize the infrastructure behind U.S. NGL movement.
The U.S. NGLs Map provides a comprehensive view of the transport, processing, and export networks moving NGLs across the U.S.
Before looking more closely at KAPS, a brief description of Keyera and SemCAMS is needed. Keyera is a large midstream operator with natural gas gathering and processing plants in the foothills and northwest of Alberta; the company also owns natural gas liquids fractionation and transportation assets, provides storage and marketing services, and offers a large condensate logistics service through its diluent hub in Fort Saskatchewan, AB, with further connections to its operations in Edmonton. (We covered some of Keyera’s liquids storage operations in Edmonton & Hardisty.) From both Fort Saskatchewan and Edmonton, Keyera can ship condensate for use as diluent via a number of different pipelines to oil sands operations in and around the Fort McMurray area. SemCAMS, jointly owned by Tulsa, OK-based SemGroup Corp. and private investment firm KKR, is one of the largest natural gas processing companies in Western Canada and owns gas and liquids gathering pipelines that feed several large gas processing plants in the foothills of Alberta.
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About the song
"Your Back Yard" is an up-tempo boogie-woogie number written by Burton Cummings and appears on his 1976 solo studio album, Burton Cummings. The song is a good showcase for the vocal prowess of the former The Guess Who singer whose voice is on all their hit records. The album went to #30 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. The single "Stand Tall" from the album went to #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. A single was released of "Your Back Yard" in 1977, but it failed to chart in the U.S.
Burton Cummings wrote or co-wrote many of the hits for The Guess Who, the Canadian band he joined as lead vocalist in 1966, and left in 1975 to pursue a solo career. Some of the hits he was involved in the writing of were: "No Time," "American Woman," "Share the Land," "These Eyes," and "Laughing." Cummings made 12 albums with The Guess Who, and went on to make 12 solo albums. He has done some shows and recordings with fellow ex-Guess Who member Randy Bachman (of Bachman-Turner Overdrive fame.) as the Bachman-Cummings Band. He has also toured as a vocalist with Ringo Starr's All Starr Band. He published a book of his poetry in 2018. Cummings was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from SOCAN (a Canadian music association) for his songwriting and is also a member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. The Guess Who received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in 2002. Cummings still performs live occasionally.
