Businessmen, oil servicemen and local residents gathered on Wednesday morning for the unveiling of a new truck terminal and oil blending facility at the Apache Oil complex in the Midale oil field.

The project was a joint venture between the Apache and Dynegy companies, both based out of Calgary. The partnership aims to maximize productivity, and in turn, maximize profits.

"The role of our company is to help the commercial facility by bringing in truckloads of crude oil and maximize its value," said Bob Viccars of Dynegy. "Apache operates the facility on behalf of both companies."

Dynegy owns the truck off-loading facility and the blending facility, and Apache is the contract operator. Trucks bring in oil to the facility, and the water and sediment in the oil is removed. The oil is then mixed with a higher quality of crude to create a better product and thus enhance the value of the overall mixture.

"We're taking in third party oil and play the role of third party processor for those companies that can't afford to build a facility to blend oil," said Apache Canada production manager, J.C. Ridens.

"If people bring in lower grade oil, and we can mix it and make a higher grade oil, they'll get more money and activity will last longer. It's better for everyone," said Bill Jackson of the business development sector for Apache Canada.

Bill Coward of the RM of Cymri said the blending service will be beneficial to the area.

"It's really a positive thing for the municipality. Traffic will greatly increase and the roads will have to be kept up. But the companies have been very co-operative with the municipality so that we all are successful," he said while touring the blending unit.

Other spin-offs will be felt in the trucking industry, says Gibson Petroleum's Neil Carruthers.

"The Apache facility will affect us directly because a large amount of the fluid we haul will be to that facility We hope that it will provide us with a lot of opportunities."

Staff members of Apache Canada led tours of the facility until 1:30 p.m. and a luncheon was served.