Update On Wind Ridge Pipeline, One Of The Largest Gas Pipelines To Be Built In North Dakota In Ten Years -- August 29, 2014

Updates

April 11, 2016: update on this pipeline -- the application for this project has been withdrawn. 

The application for regulatory approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the planned Wind Ridge Pipeline to carry natural gas to near Spiritwood has been withdrawn, according to Tim Rasmussen, public relations manager for WBI Energy Transmission, owner of the project.

The planned 96-mile pipeline would have connected to the Northern Border Pipeline near Zeeland, N.D., and angled to the northeast to near Spiritwood where it was intended to provide natural gas to the planned CHS fertilizer plant. 

Original Post

 

The problem with blogging on the Bakken, or following the Bakken, or driving around the Bakken, everything becomes a blur. So much is happening, that unless "-est" is in the headline, the story may not catch one's attention.

Wind Ridge Pipeline is just one of a thousand examples. I assume I've come across Wind Ridge Pipeline before, but never paid any attention to it until Steven sent me the link to the story, and I happened to see a word in the lede with "-est" in it.

The Jamestown Sun is reporting:

One of the largest natural gas pipelines in North Dakota in the last decade is in the planning and permitting process, according to Tim Rasmussen, spokesman for WBI Energy, a division of MDU Resources Group.

Rasmussen said Wind Ridge Pipeline LLC will cost an estimated $120 million and will serve the proposed CHS nitrogen fertilizer plant at Spiritwood.

“Construction of the pipeline is contingent on CHS moving forward,” he said. “In order to meet their timelines we had to start the pre-filing process now.”

The pipeline will transfer natural gas from the Northern Border Pipeline near Zeeland, ND, to the CHS plant at Spiritwood for conversion into nitrogen fertilizer. The 95-mile pipeline project will cross Mcintosh, Logan, LaMoure and Stutsman counties with 16-inch pipe.

I have blogged at least twice on the Spiritwood fertilizer plant, but had missed or did not know about the "largest" pipeline that would be built to bring natural gas to the plant.

Other posts regarding the CHS plant:

• propane off-loading facility coming along
• Yahoo!In-Play
• RBN Energy
• EPA okays CHS
• largest-ever fertilizer plant has final approval

As Joe Biden would say, this is "a really big freakin' deal."

By the way, going back to all those links brings us back to all those propane-shortage stories. Somehow we weathered that, also.

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Meanwhile, Back At Refinery....

The Dakota Prairie Refinery southwest of Dickinson is about 80 percent complete ...

The Dickinson Press is reporting:

With an estimated 20 percent of work still to finish — “the hardest,” said project manager Jeff Rust — the $350 million refinery is on schedule to begin processing roughly 20,000 barrels of crude oil per day later this year. It will produce about 300 barrels of natural gas and 7,000 to 8,000 barrels of diesel per day, much of which will be sent to local wholesalers and sold in the community.

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Twelve (12) new permits --

• Operators: Slawson (7), CLR (4). Hunt
• Fields: Big Bend (Mountrail), Dollar Joe  (Williams), Parshall (Mountrail)
  Comments:

Seven (7) producing wells completed:

• 23256, 642, SM Energy, Arnold 16X-12H, Siverston, t4/14; cum 28K 6/14;
• 23257, 776, SM Energy, Dorothy 16-12H, Siverston, t4/14; cum 55K 6/14;
• 24476, 1,890, Statoil, M. Olson 20-29 6H, Painted Woods, t7/14; cum --
• 26212, 1,967, EOG, Wayzetta 40-1424H, Parshall, 1920-acre although it's technically a long horizontal, in fact it really only drains one section (section 23), t3/14; cum 124K 6/14;
• 26346, 2,384, Statoil, Cvancara 20-17 7H, Alger, t7/14; cum --
• 26750, 615, SM Energy, Rick 16X-12H, Siverston, t4/14;
• 27080, 1,070, Arsenal, Allison Ann 10-3H,