Rangeland Midstream Canada Ltd. has started construction on a crude oil and condensate pipeline system in north-central Alberta and is now targeting a project in-service date of 2Q2020.

The Calgary firm, a subsidiary of Texas-based Rangeland Energy, said the 85-kilometer (53-mile) Marten Hills Pipeline System would serve a 450,000-acre area of emerging low-cost oil and condensate production.

The Marten Hills region is a rare spot in a vast, but technically difficult, Alberta bitumen deposit known as the Clearwater Formation. The oil there flows into horizontal wells without expensive hydraulic fracturing or natural gas-fired steam injections.

Recent earth sciences advances uncovered the sweet spot in a geological structure that has been known for a century. Development of Marten Hills remains in early stages, with the industry evaluating the productive area’s size and volume potential.