Update of ONEOK's Bakken Projects From the CEO

Bakken-related notes from ONEOK's 2Q12 earnings conference call, update on Bakken projects: 

First, all of our previously announced internal growth projects are within the forecasted project cost and timeline ranges.

Second, last week we announced more internal growth projects totalling approximately $1 billion that now bring our 2011 to 2015 internal growth program from $5.7 billion to $6.6 billion. Our contractual dedications in the Williston Basin have grown to 2.7 million acres which is supporting the building of a new 100 million cubic feet per day natural gas processing facility, the Garden Creek II plant and related infrastructure. Upon completion, our processing capability in the Williston Basin will be approximately 500 million cubic feet per day.

We will also be installing additional pump stations on the Bakken NGL pipeline to increase its capacity to 135,000 barrels per day from an initial 60,000 barrels per day to take away liquids generated by our plants.

Third, an update of our plan to build the 1300 mile Bakken Crude Express Pipeline. Discussions with crude oil producers indicate they project crude oil production to increase to well over 1 million barrels per day within the next five years requiring additional crude oil takeaway capacity. At the moment, we are in advanced stages of negotiations with two large anchor shippers who represent a majority of the 200,000 barrel per day initial pipeline capacity. We are also negotiating with multiple other producers for additional capacity. We expect to have committed in the near-term well before construction all the pipeline’s capacity that’s available for commitments. Final negotiations with the anchor tenants, as well as the open season results could increase the current pipeline capacity beyond 200,000 barrels. For obvious competitive reasons we are not disclosing the proposed rates at this time. However, it will be advantageous to rail with producers able to lock in rates for longer term compared with a contract for typical rail capacity.

Much, more more at the link.