ONEOK Partners completes three natural gas projects

ONEOK Partners, L.P. has announced the completion of three natural gas gathering and processing and natural gas liquids capital growth projects, worth approximately US$ 1 billion. These completed projects are part of the partnership's previously announced US$ 6 billion to US$ 6.4 billion capital growth programme through 2016 and include:

• The Sterling III pipeline, a 540-plus mile, 16 in. diameter natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline that transports either unfractionated NGLs or NGL purity products from the Mid-Continent region to the Texas Gulf Coast.
• The 200 million ft³/d Canadian Valley natural gas processing facility and related infrastructure in the Cana-Woodford Shale in Oklahoma.
• An ethane/propane (E/P) splitter at its Mont Belvieu, Texas, NGL storage facility.

"These investments continue to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to build the infrastructure necessary to better serve our producers and customers," said Terry K. Spencer, President and Chief Executive Officer of ONEOK Partners. "Each of these projects integrates with our existing assets in the midstream value chain. Their completion is a significant achievement that would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of our employees, contractors and suppliers," Spencer added.

Sterling III pipeline

The Sterling III pipeline has the capacity to transport 193 000 bpd of either unfractionated NGLs or NGL purity products from the partnership's NGL infrastructure at Medford, Oklahoma, to its storage and fractionation facilities at Mont Belvieu, Texas.

The partnership's existing Sterling I and II pipelines are being reconfigured to transport either unfractionated NGLs or NGL purity products, and are expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2014. The cost for the Sterling III pipeline and these reconfigurations is approximately US$ 760 million to US$ 790 million.

"The Sterling III pipeline is the partnership's fourth NGL pipeline connecting the Mid-Continent and Gulf Coast NGL market centres," Spencer said. "Its completion, combined with the reconfigurations of our existing Sterling I and II NGL pipelines, gives us additional operational flexibility and enables us to increase the flow of NGL volumes between these two important NGL market centres."

The Sterling III pipeline traverses the NGL-rich Woodford Shale and provides transportation capacity for NGL production from the growing Cana-Woodford Shaleand Granite Wash, where new natural gas processing plants are being built as a result of increased drilling activity in these areas.

Canadian Valley natural gas processing facility

ONEOK Partners also completed construction of its new, 200 million ft³/d natural gas processing facility, the Canadian Valley plant, in the Cana-Woodford Shalearea in Oklahoma. The cost for the Canadian Valley plant and related infrastructure is approximately US$ 340 million to US$ 360 million.

"The Canadian Valley plant is located in the heart of the NGL-rich Cana-Woodford Shale and is connected to the partnership's existing natural gas and natural gas liquids pipelines," said Spencer. "This new plant provides much needed natural gas processing capacity to handle growing volumes in this area. In addition, natural gas liquids volumes produced from this new plant are expected to add incremental NGL volumes to our extensive Oklahoma natural gas liquids system."

The Canadian Valley plant will increase the partnership's natural gas processing capacity in Oklahoma to approximately 700 million ft³/d and is now the partnership's largest natural gas processing facility in Oklahoma.

New E/P splitter at Mont Belvieu

ONEOK Partners also completed a US$ 46 million, 40 000 bpd E/P splitter at its Mont Belvieu NGL storage facility to split E/P mix into purity ethane and purity propane to meet the growing needs of petrochemical customers. The facility is capable of producing 32 000 bpd of purity ethane and 8000 bpd of propane.

In addition to its previously announced US$ 6 billion to US$ 6.4 billion capital growth programme through 2016, the partnership has a US$ 2 billion to US$ 3 billion-plus backlog of unannounced growth projects that it continues to develop. Additional projects included in this backlog will be announced when sufficient supply commitments are completed.

Adapted from press release by Rosalie Starling

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/22042014/oneok_partners_completes_three_natural_gas_projects_224/