Oneok completes Bakken, Mont Belvieu NGL projects
Oneok Partners LP has completed three projects that are part of its previously announced growth program through 2015. These projects are as follows:
• The Bakken NGL Pipeline, transporting unfractionated NGL from the Bakken and Three Forks formations in the Williston basin to the partnership's 50%-owned Overland Pass Pipeline, a 760-mile NGL pipeline extending from southern Wyoming to Conway, Kan.
• The Stateline II natural gas processing facility in western Williams County, ND.
• An ethane header pipeline creating a new interconnection between the partnership's Mont Belvieu, Tex., NGL fractionation and several petrochemical customers.
The Bakken NGL Pipeline is a $450-550 million, 600-mile system that will transport 60,000 b/d of unfractionated NGL from Oneok’s gas processing plants and third-party processing plants to a northern Colorado interconnection with the Overland Pass Pipeline for shipment to both Oneok’s Midcontinent NGL fractionation and storage in central Kansas and the Texas Gulf Coast.
The partnership announced plans in July 2012 to install additional pump stations on the Bakken NGL Pipeline, increasing its capacity to 135,000 b/d. The company expects to complete this expansion third-quarter 2014 at a cost of $100 million.
Oneok also began operating its $135-150 million, 100-MMcfd natural Stateline II gas processing plant in western Williams County, ND. Stateline II is the third new natural gas processing facility Oneok has completed in the Williston basin since late 2011, joining the 100-MMcfd Garden Creek and 100-MMcfd Stateline I plants, increasing its processing capacity in the region to 390 MMcfd from 90 MMcfd in 2011.
The partnership previously announced that it will invest $1.7-1.9 billion for natural gas gathering and processing projects in the Williston basin from 2011 through 2015, including the 100-MMcfd Garden Creek II and 100-MMcfd Garden Creek III plants in eastern McKenzie County, ND (OGJ Online, Jan. 18, 2013). Oneok expects these plants to enter service third-quarter 2014 and first-quarter 2015, respectively, increasing its natural gas processing capacity in the region to 590 MMcfd.
Oneok’s 12-in. OD ethane header pipeline also entered service, transporting up to 400,000 b/d of purity ethane from the its 80%-owned, 160,000-b/d MB-1 fractionator in Mont Belvieu, underpinned by contracts with area petrochemical companies. The header will move ethane from Oneok’s wholly owned, 75,000-b/d MB-2 and MB-3 fractionators once they are completed in third-quarter 2013 and fourth-quarter 2014, respectively, and the previously announced 32,000-b/d ethane, 8,000-b/d propane splitter expected to enter service second-quarter 2014 (OGJ Online, Aug. 12, 2012).
The Bakken NGL Pipeline, Stateline II plant, and Mont Belvieu ethane pipeline are part of $4.7-5.3 billion in growth planned by Oneok through 2015. The partnership is evaluating an additional $2 billion-plus backlog of growth projects which it will announce when sufficient supply commitments are completed.
Contact Christopher E. Smith at [email protected].
Christopher E. Smith | Editor in Chief
Christopher brings 27 years of experience in a variety of oil and gas industry analysis and reporting roles to his work as Editor-in-Chief, specializing for the last 15 of them in midstream and transportation sectors.
