ONEOK Partners invest in North Dakota

ONEOK Partners, L.P. has announced plans to invest approximately US $650 - 780 million between now and the second quarter 2016 to:

• Build a new 200 million m³/day natural gas processing facility, the Lonesome Creek plant, and related infrastructure in McKenzie County, North Dakota, in the Bakken Shale in the Williston Basin.
• Complete a second expansion of the Bakken NGL Pipeline, which will increase the pipeline's capacity to 160 000 bpd from 135 000 bpd.

Addressing constraints in the region

"Production in the Williston Basin continues to increase with no signs of levelling off or slowing," said Terry K. Spencer, President, ONEOK Partners. "The new Lonesome Creek plant and related infrastructure will be well-positioned to capitalise on existing ONEOK Partners assets and provide producers in the area with essential natural gas processing capacity. These investments are another example of ONEOK Partners' ongoing commitment to address natural gas gathering and processing constraints in the region and help reduce natural gas flaring in North Dakota.

"This additional expansion of our Bakken NGL Pipeline will allow us to transport additional natural gas liquids (NGL) volumes from the Lonesome Creek plant to our Mid-Continent NGL infrastructure," added Spencer.

Investments

The new Lonesome Creek plant is expected to cost approximately US$ 320  - 390 million. When complete, it will be the partnership's largest natural gas processing plant in North Dakota and will increase the natural gas processing capacity in the state to approximately 800 m³/day.

In addition, ONEOK Partners also expects to invest approximately US$ 230 - 290 million for related expansions and upgrades to its existing natural gas gathering and compression infrastructure. The Lonesome Creek plant and related infrastructure are expected to be completed by the end of 2015.

To accommodate NGL volumes produced from the new Lonesome Creek plant, ONEOK Partners expects to invest an additional US$ 100 million to increase capacity on its Bakken NGL Pipeline, an approximately 600 mile pipeline completed in April 2013 that transports unfractionated NGLs produced in the Williston Basin to the partnership's 50% owned Overland Pass Pipeline.

This second expansion of the Bakken NGL Pipeline, which is expected to be complete during the first half of 2016, will increase its capacity to 160 000 bpd to accommodate NGL volumes from the new Lonesome Creek plant.

The Bakken NGL Pipeline is currently being expanded to 135 000 bpd from an original capacity of 60 000 bpd. This previously announced initial expansion is expected to be complete in the third quarter 2014.

Adapted from press release by Hannah Priestley-Eaton

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/20112013/oneok_partners-_invest_in_north_dakota/