The ExxonMobil Production Co. has finished its new processing facility in the Piceance Basin, northwest of Rifle, the company announced on Monday.

“The new facilities have the capacity to handle up to 200 million cubic feet per day of natural gas,” the company said in a prepared statement. “They include gas and liquid gathering systems, treating facilities, a produced-water pipeline and subsurface disposal system, and a condensate sales and truck-loading site.”

According to the company’s website, ExxonMobil has been producing natural gas in the region for half a century, and currently has seven drilling rigs in operation to increase its production volumes.

The company claims to have sufficient leases of gas-producing lands to produce up to 45 trillion cubic feet of gas from the “tight gas” formations of the Piceance Basin.

The company also claims to have reduced its fresh water demands by as much as 80 percent through the use of a special technology that reuses water recovered from the various processes employed in gas exploration and production.

To celebrate the completion of the processing facility, the company held a grand opening event at the site, and invited Garfield County Commissioner Mike Samson of Rifle to attend. Samson said on Monday that he planned to attend the event.