Williams’ Willow Creek plant at full power

RBC I Williams announced that the 450-million-cubic-feet-per-day (MMcfd) Willow Creek natural gas processing plant in western Colorado’s Piceance Basin has achieved full processing operations. The plant began operations on Aug. 7.
“This state-of-the-art facility reinforces our commitment to building large-scale, reliable infrastructure in key basins,” said Alan Armstrong, president of Williams’ midstream business. “With Willow Creek we bring the same intense focus on safety and reliability as we do with all our assets,” Armstrong said.
“Our team completed the plant on time and with no lost-time accidents during construction. It was also completed within approximately 1 percent of the original budget, which is significant given the inflated construction cost environment during the majority of the project,” Armstrong said.
Construction of the Willow Creek facility began November 2007 and finished in July 2009. It consists of a single-train amine treating and cryogenic plant located in Rio Blanco County, Colo., approximately 25 miles northwest of Williams’ facilities in Garfield County.
The plant’s volumes originate from Williams’ natural gas production in the Piceance Basin. The volumes currently being processed are being delivered to the Willow Creek plant via the Parachute Lateral, the company’s 30-inch diameter gathering pipeline. The volumes are delivered into the Parachute Lateral downstream of Williams’ Parachute processing plant.
After processing at Willow Creek, the Parachute Lateral then delivers the gas north to the Greasewood and White River Hubs.
The Willow Creek plant is currently recovering approximately 20,000 barrels per day of natural gas liquids (NGLs). Once the Willow Creek plant is processing gas volumes that have not already been processed at the Parachute plant, the expectation for peak NGL production is nearly 30,000 barrels per day. At peak production, the Willow Creek plant will boost the volume of NGLs recovered by Williams in the basin by more than five times the previous levels.