There is a breath of fresh air for residents surrounding the Chain Gilby Gas Plant.
A proposal for the installation of wellhead compression at the site had residents concerned about increased noise and smell in the area.
A solution is about to come into effect.
“KeySpan Energy Canada and Chain Energy are currently in the final stages of completing a project that will see KeySpan process gas accepted from Chain’s Gilby Gas Plant,” said Paul Hagel, from KeySpan.
“Originally, Chain had proposed the installation of wellhead compression at the site of their well to deal with a decline in reservoir pressure. Local opposition to potential compressor noise made that plan difficult to implement.
“The voices of the public and the multistakeholders group in the area were heard and a new proposal had to be decided upon,” he said.
“As an alternative solution, KeySpan offered to process all gas from the Chain Gilby Gas Plant at the nearby KeySpan facility,” said Hagel, “thus, eliminating the need for the compressor and alleviating the concerns of area residents.”
As well as the elimination of the proposal for the compressor, the project will have an even bigger effect on the Gilby plant.
“On a further positive note for local stakeholders this agreement will see the gas treatment facilities at Chain Energy Gilby decommissioned, further reducing the noise and flare levels from the current plant site, said Hagel.
To begin processing gas from the Chain Gilby Gas Plant, KeySpan and Chain have just completed constructing two four-inch pipelines approximately 1.6 km in length to transport all gas destined for the Chain plant directly to KeySpan’s operations for processing.
The pipelines are nearly finished and in working order.
“Gas should be flowing at the end of this week,” said Eric Mohun, Manager of Community Relations for KeySpan Energy Canada. “If all goes well it will be all tied in and working at the end of this week.”
Mohun is well aware of how the project came to be.
“One of the reasons we recognized something needed to be done was from feedback from multistakeholder groups,” he said. “They have a big say and Rimbey has a big one.”
Mohun, who is also a representative of the Rimbey multi-stakeholders group sees this project as a small answer to a bigger question. “It’s one step towards a bigger step at getting some control over emissions into the air shed,” said Mohun. “It’s the first attempt at doing the right thing.”
This may just be the step in the right direction the public has been looking for.
“Hopefully this is a sign that the industry as well as KeySpan is recognising that the public has some response and some say in response to air emissions.”
With this agreement, Chain and KeySpan are able to solve the concerns of residents and consolidate operations in the area - a win win solution for all stakeholders in the Rimbey area.
“It’s a win win situation for everybody,” said Hagel. “Industrial cooperation always has a positive result.”
