Oneok Partners representatives Steve Johnson, Government Regulations, and Megan Lewis, Corporate Communications, met last Wednesday in Sidney to discuss progress of the future Bakken Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) Pipeline. Construction on the pipeline is set to begin mid-May of this year.
Oneok Partners, a Tulsa, Okla. based company, announced last year plans to build the multi-million dollar natural gas liquids pipeline through the region. The 500-mile Bakken Pipeline, starts near Sidney and travels south through Wyoming into northern Colorado. The Bakken NGL pipeline is expected to deliver 60,000 barrels per day (bpd).
“With the 500 mile, 12 inch pipeline, it will be able to increase up to 110,000 bpd,” said Johnson.
The pipeline will transport raw, unfractionated natural gas liquids from natural gas processing plants in the Bakken Shale area to the company’s 50-percent owned existing Overland Pass Pipeline which travels to Kansas where natural gas liquids are processed.
The company also announced last week plans to invest $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion between now and 2015 to build a 1,300-mile crude-oil pipeline with the capacity to transport 200,000 barrels per day (bpd).
The Bakken Crude Express Pipeline will transport light-sweet crude oil from the Bakken Shale in the Williston Basin in North Dakota to the Cushing, Okla., crude-oil market hub.
“As producers continue to aggressively develop crude oil from wells in the Bakken Shale, more crude-oil pipeline takeaway capacity will be required,” said Terry K. Spencer, Oneok Partners president, in a recent press release. “This proposed pipeline will provide producers with efficient and reliable transportation of their product directly to one of the largest crude-oil market hubs in the U.S.”
This project represents the partnership’s entry into crude-oil transportation which currently is transported by rail or truck. Many of the supply commitments under negotiation are with the same producers in the Williston Basin that Oneok currently serves.
“We are fairly confident in gaining the supply commitments,” said Johnson.
Supply commitments for the proposed pipeline are in various stages of negotiation. Construction is expected to begin in late 2013 or early 2014 following receipt of all necessary permits and compliance with customary regulatory requirements and be completed by early 2015. Based on supply commitments prior to construction, the capacity of the pipeline can be increased.
The proposed pipeline route is expected to parallel more than 80 percent of the partnership’s existing and planned natural gas liquids pipelines. It will be designed, constructed and operated using proven technology, pipeline control systems and continuous safety monitoring.
The partnership has previously announced that it is investing $2.8 billion to $3.5 billion through 2014 in growth projects.
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