A midstream oil and gas company in Rimbey is on the lookout for more employees.
Chris Atherley, Rimbey plant manager for Gibson Energy, said up to eight employees could be hired for a rail loading site that could be up and running by Aug. 1 depending on weather conditions.
Plans have been in the works for about a year, said Atherley.
“We have similar sites in several other locations, but this is a first for Rimbey,” he said.
Gibson Energy bought the parcel of land east of Highway 20 in northeast Rimbey from CP Rail for the purpose of constructing the rail loading facility. Company representatives met with town officials before beginning construction.
“They were just checking on regulations,” said CAO Tony Goode. “We went through the hoops with them and gave them a permit to go ahead and construct.”
Once operational, trucks will hook up to the mobile device so cars can be loaded with crude oil for shipping.
Atherley doesn’t expect truck traffic to increase downtown as as result of the new operation.
Last year the Gibson Rimbey Trucking Terminal was converted to a custom-treating terminal. The conversion meant trucks transported unprocessed oil into the terminal where the substance was processed to remove the water by using a pressure vessel to heat the oil to allow the water to settle out. The clean oil is then pipelined to Pembina Pipelines, two kilometres southeast of the facility. Separated water is trucked to other sites for disposal.
As a result of the conversion, truck traffic from the Gibson Energy terminal doubled to about two trucks an hour.
Gibson began midstream services in 1953 when it sold 365 barrels of crude oil on behalf of Anglo American Oils ltd. to the British American Oil Co. Ltd.