The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition Pembina Pipeline unveiled a $1-billion (U.S.) plan to tap the North American shale boom and build a new propane export terminal in Portland, Ore., to meet strong demand in Asia. The Globe's Jeff Lewis writes the $500-million plant would export 37,000 barrels of propane a day, with start-up targeted for early 2018. The company is also acquiring the 700-kilometre Vantage ethane pipeline and part of a Saskatchewan extraction plant from affiliates of Riverstone Holdings LLC for $650-million. Vantage has capacity to transport up to 40,000 barrels of ethane a day from Tioga, N.D., to Empress, Alta. Propane and ethane are byproducts of the U.S. drilling boom. Energy companies are assessing more than a dozen liquefied natural gas plants for the B.C. coast, in hopes of giving the Alberta industry access to markets in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and China. The LNG plants, backed by deep-pocketed energy giants such as Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Chevron Corp., are much larger and more expensive than anything contemplated by Pembina. The push to diversify sales of propane, butane and ethane -- better known as natural gas liquids -- is driven by the same dynamics.