Tioga: Waste Oil Processing Plant and Expanded Natural Gas Plan -- North Dakota, USA

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First project: $2.3 million crude oil waste processing plant to be built near Tioga

In same issue, Hess outlines CAPEX for the Bakken for 2011. Most significant: increase rig count from ten to fifteen. Hess will also allocate $325 million to expand its gas processing plant, to double current capacity from 110 million cubic feet to 225 million cubic feet daily. The project was originally estimated to cost $500 million. The construction project will employ 300 to 600 personnel; Hess will provide temporary housing.

I don't know how the size of this natural gas processing plant compares with others, but in 2009, a 30 million cubic feet/day processing plant was built in Pennsylvania to support the Marcellus shale natural gas production. A plant in West Virginia has just been approved this year which will process 300 million cubic feet/day. However, that plant will be built in phases and maximum capacity will be reached only if production mandates it.

A natural gas processing plant in Texas expansion project completed in 2010 increased capacity from 9 million cubic fee/day to 100 million cubic feet/day.

Based on this limited information, it sounds like the natural gas processing plant at Tioga will be one of the bigger ones in the country.

Okay, one more. A 200 million cubic feet/day natural gas processing plant was approved in 2010 in British Columbia (Canada) but it, too, would be built in two phases, the first phase for 100 million cubic feet/day.