Suffield Location

AECO Suffield is located in southeastern Alberta near Medicine Hat and close to the Nova system’s ‘eastern gate’, where gas is delivered into TransCanada’s Canadian Mainline and the Foothills/Northern Border Pipeline systems. This is by far the biggest delivery point for Alberta gas. Storage withdrawals are hydraulically very valuable at this location, and provide security for downstream markets in the event of an upstream constraint or outage.

The AECO Suffield storage reservoirs are situated entirely underneath an active military range, Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Suffield. Due to firing of live artillery in a large portion of the military range, the wells are buried in underground well-head caissons. The basic design consists of steel grating over an inverted steel culvert with a plywood cover to keep out sand, snow and wildlife. The design required that they could withstand the load of a 60 ton tank and all but a direct artillery hit.

As prior owner Alberta Energy Company (AEC) developed gas production on the Suffield range, treating and metering facilities, including connections to the Nova system, were constructed at various locations around the edge of the Suffield block, so as to minimize facilities in the ‘line of fire’. The mnemonic code that Nova used to identify these meter stations incorporated a short form of the company name and a series of letters for the different meter stations. The reservoirs developed for storage were closest to the AECO ‘C’ meter station, and the storage surface facilities were developed there. When Suffield was the only facility, we called our business the AECO C Hub. Industry still commonly refers to the trading and pricing point for Alberta gas as ‘AECO C’. Recognizing that we now employ multiple facilities, we have since simplified the name to just AECO Hub™.

Suffield has been used for gas storage since 1988, and in commercial storage service since the early 1990′s.

AECO Hub™ – Suffield Area Map (PDF, 409KB)

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Suffield Location