Seven Generations Energy Ltd. (7G) said Wednesday it has completed construction and commissioning of its Cutbank processing plant at its Kakwa River project in northwest Alberta, bringing it onstream a week early and 18% under budget.

The plant is designed to process 250 MMcf/d of liquids-rich natural gas.

“With the addition of the Cutbank plant, production volumes in 2016 are expected to grow as additional wells are brought onstream,” 7G said. The Calgary-based company expects to produce an average of between 100,000 and 110,000 boe/d and plans capital investment of $900-950 million in 2016.

Combined with the expansion in December of 7G’s Lator processing complex, Cutbank takes liquids-rich gas processing capacity to about 510 MMcf/d at the Kakwa River Project. The Cutbank project included constructing field gathering pipelines and a 29-kilometer (18-mile), 24-inch diameter natural gas pipeline that connects Cutbank to the Alliance Pipeline to deliver liquids-rich gas to the Chicago-area market.

Last August, 7G said it had agreements with two divisions of Tenaska to manage growing natural gas transportation capacity to the Midwest via the Alliance Pipeline system (see Daily GPI, Aug. 17, 2015). Over the next three years, 7G said its transportation capacity on Alliance — a pipeline that carries about 1.6 Bcf/d of liquids-rich gas from northern British Columbia and Alberta to the Chicago market hub — would grow incrementally.

7G began flowing gas on Alliance Dec. 1.