ONEOK Completes Projects Serving Bakken and Niobrara

ONEOK Partners LP (Tulsa) has completed more than $500 million in capital growth projects, including the 100-MMcfd Garden Creek III natural gas processing plant and related infrastructure in McKenzie County, N.D. Also complete is the expansion of the Bakken Natural Gas Liquids Pipeline and the Niobrara NGL Lateral. The projects are part of the company’s $8.3-billion to $9-billion capital growth program through 2016.

Garden Creek III was completed three months early. Plant capacity is expected to increase to 120 MMcfd during the fourth quarter of 2015 following construction of additional natural gas compression facilities. The partnership’s Williston Basin natural gas processing capacity is expected to increase to about 1.2 Bcfd in the third quarter of 2016 following completion of ONEOK’s Lonesome Creek, Bear Creek, and Demicks Lake natural gas processing plants.

The Bakken Natural Gas Liquids Pipeline now has a capacity of 135,000 bbld from an initial 60,000 bbld with the installation of additional pump stations. A second expansion will bring pipeline capacity to 160,000 bbld in the second quarter of 2016. “The expansion of the Bakken NGL Pipeline reflects our continuing commitment to provide NGL transportation capacity to producers actively developing shale plays within our operating footprint,” said Terry K. Spencer, president and CEO of ONEOK Partners.

The Niobrara NGL Lateral, an NGL pipeline lateral that connects ONEOK’s Sage Creek natural gas processing facility in Wyoming to the Bakken NGL Pipeline, is also complete. ONEOK acquired the Sage Creek plant and related natural gas gathering and natural gas liquids infrastructure in 2013. The company’s capital growth budget through 2016 includes about $4.5 billion for natural gas gathering and processing projects and approximately $4.1 billion for NGL projects.