Oneok to expand operations in the Williston

Oneok Partners LP, Tulsa, will invest $650-780 million between now and second-quarter 2016 in more Williston basin projects.

Specifically, Oneok will:

• Build a 200-MMcfd Lonesome Creek gas processing plant and related infrastructure in McKenzie County, ND, in the Bakken shale. The plant will be Oneok’s sixth new natural gas processing plant in the region since 2010 and seventh plant overall.

• Complete a second expansion of the Bakken NGL pipeline, increase its capacity to 160,000 b/d from 135,000 b/d (OGJ Online, Apr. 10, 2013).

Terry K. Spencer, president of Oneok Partners, said the expansion of the Bakken NGL pipeline will move additional NGLs from the Lonesome Creek plant to Oneok’s Midcontinent NGL infrastructure.

The new Lonesome Creek plant will cost $320-390 million, the company said. When complete, the plant will be Oneok’s largest gas processing plant in North Dakota and will increase its total gas processing capacity in the state to about 800 MMcfd.

In addition to the new plant, Oneok expects to invest $230-290 million for related expansions and upgrades to existing gas gathering and compression. The Lonesome Creek plant and related infrastructure will be completed by yearend 2015 and be supported by acreage dedications from producers.

To accommodate NGL volumes produced from the new plant, Oneok will invest an additional $100 million to increase capacity on its Bakken NGL pipeline, a 600-mile pipeline completed in April that transports unfractionated NGLs produced in the Williston basin to the Oneok’s 50%-owned Overland Pass pipeline.

This second expansion of the Bakken NGL pipeline, which is to be complete during first-half 2016, will increase its capacity to 160,000 b/d to accommodate NGL volumes from the new Lonesome Creek plant.

The Bakken NGL pipeline is currently being expanded to 135,000 b/d from an original capacity of 60,000 b/d. This previously announced initial expansion is to be complete in third-quarter 2014.