Oneok Completes Garden Creek II Natural Gas Processing Facility

Oneok Partners LP (Tulsa) said Aug. 26 that its 100-MMcfd natural gas processing facility in eastern McKenzie County, N.D., the Garden Creek II plant, is now operational. The new plant is part of the partnership’s $7-billion to $7.5-billion capital growth program that extends through 2016.

“We remain committed to meeting the needs of our customers by building essential natural gas and natural gas liquids infrastructure in the Williston Basin,” said Terry K. Spencer, president and CEO of Oneok Partners. “Oneok Partners’ Williston Basin natural gas processing capacity now exceeds 500 MMcfd—five times more than our processing capacity in the region was in 2010—and we expect that number to grow to more than 600 MMcfd during the fourth quarter of this year, when the Garden Creek III plant is completed. Increased natural gas processing capacity also will lead to a reduction of natural gas flaring in North Dakota.”

The partnership’s Willison Basin natural gas processing capacity is expected to increase to about 1.1 Bcfd by the third quarter of 2016 following the completion of additional infrastructure, including the Garden Creek III plant, a 100-MMcfd facility, along with expansions and upgrades to existing gathering and compression infrastructure. Also scheduled to come online in 2015 is the Lonesome Creek plant, a 200-MMcfd processing facility.
The Demicks Lake plant is also a 200-MMcfd natural gas processing plant in the Williston Basin, which is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2016. The construction of additional natural gas compression to take advantage of climbing processing capacity—the result of better-than-expected plant performance at existing and planned processing plants— is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2015.