Targa Resources In The Bakken

In light of the recent announcement regarding a joint venture with Hess, it's a good time to get acquainted with Targa, a name I am very familiar with but do not know much about.

Most recent presentation dated January 23, 2018. Most of the slide presentation is devoted to the Permian; 80% of Targa's activity is related to the Permian.

There is one slide touching on the Bakken.

Note the three NG processing plants, Little Missouri I, II, and III.

If I read the graphic correctly, the capacity of these three plants is 90 million cf/d; apparently the plants reported a gross plant inlet of 61 million cf/d in 3Q17.

If I am reading the graphic correctly, Little Missouri IV will drawf these smaller plants, projected to come in at 200 million cf/d. It will also be the third or fourth largest plant in North Dakota as projected out to 2020.

Back on April 16, 2015, it was announced that Targa had planned to expand its "Badlands" project to four plants, projecting the expansion to cost $140 million. One assumes this is that project but now a joint venture with Hess at $150 million. I see both "Badlands" and "Little Missouri I - IV" being used. It's possible the entire complex is referred to as the "Badlands" complex with each plant a Little Missouri plant. I could be wrong.

History of Little Missouri I - III at this link.

Little Missouri trains I and II are straight refrigeration plants and Little Missouri III is a cryo plant (source, footnote 4).

From a reader regarding the new plant:

It's not in the corporate interest for OneOK to pay for an ethane separtion system in the Bakken as they have ones further south with pipelines there.

Targa doesn't have the capability and needs one and has deeper pockets. Hess Midstream is needed as part of it because Hess holds a big card with an ethane pipeline right now to Alberta.

That pipeline will be converted to propane and an ethane cracker would have sufficient feed if Targa and Hess build an ethane separation unit. The location is almost smack dab in the middle, so pipelines interconnecting those nat gas plants would be minimal.

OneOK will still need its NGL pipelines carrying C4 and greater. Don't think Hess and Targa would be working together unless something bigger is in planning.