Canada's Biggest Plastics Producer Will Purchase All The Ethane That Hess Produces At Its Tioga Plant; US State Department Approved International Pipeline To Complete The Deal

Back on March 24, 2013, I posted the following, stating it was the most important note from a linked article:

The distribution of economic benefit is another important issue. Operators who control processing and gathering infrastructure will obviously be in a better position to receive the highest value for their product. Hess Corp. and Whiting Petroleum are two examples of large operators taking significant control of infrastructure development in their operating areas. Hess' midstream solution is the most comprehensive and integrated: it includes a large-scale processing and fractionation facility, a dedicated ethane pipeline (Vantage pipeline), and an anchor shipper position on a new lateral interconnection to an interstate gas pipeline.

Today, through a press release, we learn that the US State Department has approved the North Dakota portion of the pipeline:

The U.S. State Department has approved construction of the North Dakota portion of a gas pipeline from Tioga into the Canadian province of Alberta, Sen. John Hoeven said Tuesday. 

The proposed $300 million, 430-mile Vantage Pipeline is slated to supply ethane from North Dakota's oil patch for Alberta's petrochemical industry beginning later this year, the Republican lawmaker said in a news release. 

North Dakota's portion of the pipeline is about 80 miles long. A presidential permit from the State Department is required because the pipeline would cross the U.S.-Canadian border.

Ethane is colorless and odorless and extracted from raw natural gas. It's used to make plastics and for welding, and as an anesthetic and an agent for ripening fruit. 

Then, note this:

Nova Chemicals Corp., Canada's biggest plastics producer, announced in 2010 that it had signed a long-term agreement to purchase all of the ethane produced at Hess Corp.'s natural gas plant in Tioga, in northwest North Dakota. Nova Chemicals at that time also signed a shipping agreement with Mistral Energy Inc. 

Justin Kringstad, director of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority, says North Dakota's Bakken shale produces high-quality ethane but that the valuable gas has not had a viable market until now. In Canada, ethane supplies have been shrinking, he said.

Can you spell Ka-ching?

A huge "thank you" to two readers who caught this story. This is a huge story.