Summit Midstream Partners Announces New Crude Oil Pipeline Takeaway And Storage In The Bakken, North Dakota -- August 2, 2014

As I was posting the story below, I was thinking how Cushing, OK, must have started: one storage tank and one pipeline at a time.

Summit Midstream Partners, LLC, announced new projects in the Bakken. See the press release linked below. There was so much information in that press release I broke it up to better understand what was planned:

For newbies:

• Epping is a town east of Williston, in the Bakken
• Divide County is the northwestern-most county in North Dakota
• the Epping area has seen phenomenal growth in the current boom, is in a sweet spot in the Bakken
• Divide County is perhaps a bit surprising to most; it's on the edge of the middle Bakken in the northwest, but the Three Forks may be quite good here; less explored/developed area than that around Watford City
• both areas have seen somewhat less development than areas in McKenzie County around Watford City
• to best of my knowledge, the major natural gas processing facilities well west of Epping, and south of Divide County are the two ONEOK facilities west of Williston (Stateline I and II, Williams County). It seems that these two facilities are a bit far from Divide County and Epping to adequately serve them, but I could be wrong

Press release (this was from the Ohio.com / Ohio Utica Shale website).

The press release has so much information in it, I broke it down, as mentioned above. Here are my notes; there may be inaccuracies; go to the linked source for the "real deal":

Summit Midstream Partners, LLC , is a privately held company that owns and controls the general partner of Summit Midstream Partners, LP. Today the company provided a commercial update for its wholly owned operating subsidiaries, Meadowlark Midstream Company, LLC ("Meadowlark") and Epping Transmission Company, LLC ("Epping Transco").

So, here goes:

Summit Midstream Partners announced plans for two wholly-owned operating subsidiaries:

• Meadowlark Midstream Company, LLC ("Meadowlark")
• Epping Transmission Company, LLC ("Epping Transco")

Meadowlark is composed of:

• the Divide Crude Oil and Water Gathering System (the "Divide System") -- for newbies, this would be in Divide County, northwest corner of North Dakota
• Water Gathering System (the "Polar System") - in North Dakota
• Niobrara Gathering and Processing System -- located in Denver-Julesberg Basin, Weld County, CO

Epping Tranco:

• a newly formed subsidiary that will own and operate the Little Muddy Interconnect (described later)
• announced today that it reached an agreement with North Dakota Pipeline Company, LLC (Enbridge Energy Partners, LP, affiliate) -- to connect with and deliver crude oil gathered on Meadowlark's Polar and Divide systems into Enbridge's North Dakota System (the "Little Muddy Interconnect")

The Little Muddy Interconnect

• interconnection between Enbridge's North Dakota System and Meadowlark's Polar and Divide systems
• 55,000 bopd of incremental pipeline capacity (from Divide County area to Enbridge regional grid)

Previously announced:

• the Little Muddy Interconnect and the Basin Transload interconnect, announced in June, 2014

Result of Little Muddy Interconnect / Basin Transload interconnect:

• Meadowlark will expand its Epping Crude Oil Storage Facility ("Epping Storage") and Divide Crude Oil Storage Facility ("Divide Storage")

Epping Storage:

• 75,000 barrel crude oil storage (initially); potential to expand
• will receive crude oil from the Polar and Divide systems
• will also include a truck unloading rack
• on-line in 3Q15
• option to access the COLT Hub rail terminal
• option to access Enbridge's North Dakota Pipeline System

Divide Storage:

• 75,000 barrel crude oil storage (initially); potential to expand
• will receive crude oil from the Divide System
• will include a multi-bay truck unloading rack
• on-line in 3Q15
• option to access the COLT Hub rail terminal
• option to access Transload's Columbus rail terminal
• option to access Enbridge's North Dakota System (through Epping Storage)

Perhaps readers can tell me where the Epping Storage and the Divide Storage facilities will be/are located.

For newbies and generalists:

• it's not important to remember, understand, or sort out the specifics
• the importance of this announcement: further investment in the Bakken (huge dollars); much more work for Okies and others who lay this pipeline; additional pipeline takeaway capacity getting trucks off the road;
• the important of this announcement: helps folks understand where the Bakken is being developed; in this case, northwest corner of North Dakota and northeast of Williston; Epping is northwest of Stockyard Creek, for example, and may/may not be as good as the Stockyard Creek area

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A Note for the Granddaughters

I am reading and enjoying How To Read Literature Like A Professor, by Thomas C. Foster, c. 2003, a softcover which I picked up from the Huntington Beach library for fifty cents.

Several of the reviewers over at Amazon.com did not care for the book, but I found it delightful. I would recommend students entering their sophomore or junior year of high school read it during the summer preceding.

I'm only through chapter 4, but it seems every chapter almost pays for the book. The fourth chapter, "If It's Square, It's a Sonnet," certainly was worth entire book. The author mentions several "types" of poetry: villanelles, sestinas, rondeaus, and then describes the sonnet.

I was in my poetry phase of literature many years ago when I was in my Sylvia Plath stage. It was nice to be reminded of things I once knew.

The author uses a wonderful sonnet written by Christina Rossetti, another author I "fell in love with" for a short period of time, and go back to her poetry every so often. Her Goblin Market is a must-read, and I look forward to the day our granddaughters are ready to be introduced to such poetry.

Here is the most wonderful sonnet by Christina Rossetti that the author chose to discuss, "An Echo from Willow-Wood" (ca. 1870):

Two gazed into a pool, he gazed and she,

Not hand in hand, yet heart in heart, I think,
Pale and reluctant on the water's brink,

As on the brink of parting which must be,
Each eyed the other's aspect, she and he,

Each felt one hungering heart leap up and sink,
Each tasted bitterness which both  must drink,

There on the brink of life's dividing sea.
Lilies upon the surface, deep below

Two wistful faces craving each for each,
Resolute and reluctant without speech: --

A sudden ripple made the faces flow,

One moment joined, to vanish out of reach:
So those hearts joined, and ah were parted so.

And, yes, there's a Willow Creek in the Bakken.