Painted Pony Petroleum has announced the commissioning of the Townsend natural gas and liquids processing facility in northern British Columbia, Canada.

The 198 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) facility is located in the Townsend portion of Painted Pony's Montney assets and has been constructed by AltaGas.

Painted Pony said that the early commissioning of the facility has provided the company with an opportunity to increase production volume growth in the second half of this year.

Furthermore, the company expects raw natural gas production volumes through the facility to average about 50MMcf/d during next month, 100MMcf/d during September this year and 150MMcf/d during October this year.

"Painted Pony continues to anticipate a year-end exit production rate of 240MMcf/d from the facility."

Painted Pony continues to anticipate a year-end exit production rate of 240MMcf/d from the facility.

The expected efficiency of the facility is set to improve natural gas liquids (NGL) yields from Blair Creek in addition and also allow for higher production volumes from the Townsend area.

Due to this, NGL volumes are expected to increase from the existing 5% of total production volumes to about 10% of total production volumes in the fourth quarter of this year.

The increased NGL production is expected to consist of about 50% condensate, with the remaining volumes to be shared between propane and butane evenly.

In May this year, Painted Pony secured additional interim firm transportation to meet all take-or-pay and contracted natural gas volume commitments for the Townsend Facility and to accommodate the potential early facility commissioning.