Overview Update of the Bakken -- NDIC Presentation -- Managing Flaring Issue -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

This presentation has been out there for a few weeks. Don sent it to me on December 1, 2011. Due to traveling, etc., I didn't have time to review it as much as I would have liked until now.

This is an impressive presentation that will answer the FAQs I get from newbies regarding management of the flaring issue in the Bakken. 

Some data points:

• 2,000 wells/year
• some suggest as many as 50,000 wells will be drilled
• NDIC says: 225 rigs --> 28,000 wells over 14 years
• 2,650 Bakken and Three Forks wells drilled and completed
• 33,000 more new wells possible --we're not even in the first inning in the Bakken
• I believe Harold Hamm says 48,000
• My calculations project 50,000

The "staggering" slides

• Slide 3: NDIC is thinking "big" with regard to production; price
• Slide 4: natural gas produced in ND has more than doubled in this boom
• Slide 19: increased flaring in ND is a red herring; comparison of US vs rest of world; US clearly has flaring under control

ONEOK Partners starting with slide 31: outstanding presentation

Overall investment directly related to the Bakken: $1.5 - $1.8 billion
Slide 32: Northern Border Pipeline -- the "keystone" of natural gas pipelines transiting ND?
Slide 38: Bakken Pipeline -- Bakken to Overland Pass Pipeline (WY-CO-KS)
Great photos of new natural gas processing plants
Garden Creek Plant, 100 MMcfd, northeast of Watford City, North Dakota, bull's eye of the Bakken
Stateline 1 and 1 Plants, 200 MMcfd, west of Williston

North Dakota Oil & Gas Research Program

• Bakken Express: exploring faster method of getting natural gas to processing plants; cutting down flaring
• Bakken Express: Using trucks, tube transport to place CNG into pipeline to gas plant (slide 49)
• Blaise Energy: on-site conversion of natural gas to electricity; for pump and for grid

Two additional takeaways from this presentation regarding the Bakken in general:

• skids
• modules