More on ONEOK and Natural Gas Infrastructure in the Bakken

For some, this will be old news. I missed it earlier, mostly because I don't follow natural gas as closely as oil. For me, the Bakken means oil.

However, going forward, it appears natural gas is going to be every bit as big a story as Bakken oil before this saga plays itself out.

A couple days ago I posted an update about a natural gas pipeline that will connect the Bakken to the Overland Pass Pipeline. I would have missed the story but one of my readers sent it to me which I very much appreciated.

Well, it turns out, there is more to the story with regard to ONEOK. Again, to some extent, some folks will see this as a recommendation for investing. I am not posting it for that reason. I just find it extraordinarily interesting, how much money is being spent on projects in North Dakota.

So, with all that as background here are some data points from an April 21, 2010, press release from ONEOK:

ONEOK will construct a new 100 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) natural gas processing facility - the Garden Creek plant - in eastern McKenzie County, N.D. This plant and related expansions are estimated to cost between $150 million and $210 million and will double the partnership's natural gas processing capacity in the Williston Basin. Completion is expected in the fourth quarter of 2011.

In addition to the construction of a new natural gas processing plant, ONEOK Partners' natural gas gathering and processing segment will invest an additional $200 million to $205 million during 2010 and 2011 for new well connections, expansions and upgrades to its existing natural gas gathering system infrastructure in the Bakken Shale.

ONEOK Partners is the largest independent operator of natural gas gathering and processing facilities in the Bakken Shale region, with a gathering system of more than 3,500 miles. In March 2009, it completed a $46 million expansion of its Grasslands natural gas processing facility in North Dakota and since 2007 has invested more than $80 million in new well connections and related infrastructure upgrades to existing natural gas gathering systems in the region. 

This was the story that got me interested in ONEOK. (Same link as first link above, the one in the third paragraph.)

Again, this is not a recommendation one way or the other for investors. It is simply a story I find intriguing, and it helps me connect the dots with regard to the natural gas  and natural gas pipeline story in North Dakota.

I think folks who were less-than-impressed with the stories first coming out of the Bakken, missed the first, second, and third derivatives of those stories. Natural gas infrastructure is a second or third derivative to the whole Bakken story. Of course, the derivatives that follow include jobs and income for the state government.

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UPDATES

July 30, 2010: Bismarck Tribune reports on the story.