Updated June 2025
Within this section
Companies recover natural gas liquids (NGLs) mainly from processing natural gas. Natural gas can be produced directly from a hydrocarbon reservoir as raw gas or mixed with crude oil or bitumen as associated gas.
Field Gas-Processing Facilities
Field gas-processing facilities (field plants) process natural gas to meet pipeline quality specifications, often involving removing NGLs. These removed NGL volumes include ethane, propane, butane, and pentanes plus. Companies sell these volumes separately to obtain full value for each NGL component.
Field plants are gas reprocessing plants that recover NGL components or NGL mix from marketable gas. They are usually situated on main gas transmission pipelines at border delivery points.
Straddle Plants
Straddle plants are gas reprocessing plants that recover NGL components or NGL mix from marketable gas. They are usually situated on main gas transmission pipelines at border delivery points.
Tariff Scenarios
Because of significant uncertainty, particularly regarding U.S. tariff policies, this year’s report examines two scenarios: a short-term tariff uncertainty scenario (base case) and a one-year tariff scenario (tariff case). The primary difference between these scenarios lies in their tariff assumptions.
- Base case: This scenario assumes business as usual and no tariffs. However, the U.S. tariff threats on energy products (oil and gas) persist throughout the first half of 2025 but are ultimately averted through diplomatic negotiations by midyear. Consequently, energy supply and demand are minimally affected.
- Tariff case: This scenario assumes a 10% U.S. tariff on energy products (oil and gas) and 25% tariffs on other Canadian goods imposed in the first half of 2025 despite diplomatic efforts. This scenario includes subsequent U.S. and Canadian retaliatory tariffs, other nontariff measures1, and additional U.S. tariffs on other trading partners. All tariffs and nontariff measures between Canada and the United States persist until the end of the first quarter of 2026 before mostly being phased out as the review or renegotiation of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement. It is expected tariffs will have some long-term effects and structural changes to the global economy (changes in trade and investment flows).
These tariff assumptions affect prices, costs, commodity profitability, investment, supply and demand, project risk factors, and commercial start dates (where applicable) for most chapters of the report, including comparisons of the outcomes of these scenarios.
1 Nontariff measures can include quotas or restrictions on imported goods (i.e., liquor), export taxes on electricity, and changes in consumer and business behaviour (i.e., buying Canadian).
