ONEOK Bringing Additional Natural Gas Processing Capacity On Line For North Dakota -- November 16, 2019

From Geoff Simon on Friday, November 15, 2019:

By January 2020, ONEOK Corporation will have constructed enough natural gas processing capacity that it will be able to handle nearly half of North Dakota's total production. January 2020? That's two months from now.

Natural gas processing plants in North Dakota are tracked here.

The state topped 3 billion cubic of natural gas production per day in August, but ONEOK will soon have the capacity to process 1.4 BCF per day.

Dick Vande Bossche, VP for Commercial Gas Supply with ONEOK Rockies Midstream, told members of the legislature's interim Energy Development and Transmission Committee this week that the company brought in service in October its Demicks Lake I plant in McKenzie County. The plant has the capacity to process 200 million cubic feet of gas per day.

Vande Bossche said ONEOK is also on schedule to bring Demicks Lake II, a second plant capable of processing 200 MMcf/d, in service sometime in January 2020.

A third plant - Bear Creek II with 200 MMcf/d capacity - is under construction in Dunn County and will be in service the first quarter of 2021.

And Vande Bossche also told legislators that ONEOK has plans for yet another 200 MMcf/d capacity on the drawing board.

"We filed certification with the PSC for another 200 million per day processing plant in McKenzie County, so that's working its way through the approval processes," Vande Bossche said. "We have interim funding to do some long lead item purchases as it relates to that 200 million a day processing facility."

He said final execution of plans for the additional gas processing plant are contingent on board approval of the project. ONEOK is also nearing completion of its Elk Creek Pipeline that will move up to 240,000 barrels per day of natural gas liquids to processing facilities in Kansas and points south. It's expected to be fully operational by the end of 2019.