Horizontal Drilling -- Natural Gas Pipeline Expansion From Watford City To Tioga -- September 24, 2022

This post began with a note from a reader. Thank you very much.  

This reminds me of The New Yorker article in 2011:

It also reminds "how much we lost" due to Covid, and how many years (a decade?) we will be paying for that lost year or two.

This story is important for many reasons, has several data points of note.

North Dakota gas plants.

Note, regarding the charg:

• no increase in natural gas processing capacity, 2022 (this year) over 2021 (last year);
• next year, 2023, should see an increase of 200 MMCFD
• from 4,037 to 4,237, a 5% increase

The increase will be at ONEOK's new Demicks Lake III plant.

• Demicks Lake I, in service, 2019: 200
• Demicks Lake II, in service. 2020: 200
• Demicks Lake III, in service, 2023: 200

Will need pipeline for takeaway from Demicks Lake III.

Enter, WBI Energy Transmission, link here:

• Bakken Gas Pipeline Expansion project
• origin: Demicks Lake III, Watford City, ND
• terminus: Northern Border Pipeline interconnect, Tioga, ND --> midcontinent
• 175,000 dt/d expansion of its pipeline system
• in-service: November, 2023
• $32.6 million
• expansion of its existing Line Section 27 system
• two 24-inch-diameter, 500-foot-long pipelines
• two new compressor stations (?) 
• if I'm reading this correctly, $33 million for a 1,000-foot expansion?
  

From The Bismarck Tribune, November 18, 2021:

Work is resuming in McKenzie County on a natural gas processing plant project delayed in 2020 by the coronavirus pandemic. 

Oneok announced this week that it will complete the project known as Demicks Lake III, an expansion of the company's processing facilities near Watford City. 

The company expects work at the site to wrap up during the first quarter of 2023. The new plant will have the capacity to handle 200 million cubic feet of gas per day. It will bring the company's total gas processing capacity across the Williston Basin to 1.9 billion cubic feet per day, which could accommodate about two-thirds of all gas produced in North Dakota. The project is expected to cost $140 million.

I can't say for sure, but it sounds like this partnership / nexus, for three major projects:

• Watford City
• Tioga
• Demicks Lake gas plants (I, II, III -- 2019, 2020, 2023)
• under-the-water pipelines, setting records in the process
• Michels
• Oneok
• MDU
• WBI Energy, a subsidiary of MDU

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Most Recent Major Pipeline Expansion Project

Link here.

From the linked article, November 4, 2021:

Michels completed a 15,426-foot horizontal directional drill (HDD) of a 24-inch pipe crossing of Lake Sakakawea on the Missouri River in North Dakota, extending the limits of trenchless construction.

The crossing is part of a new pipeline being constructed from Tioga, North Dakota, to near Watford City, North Dakota.

The HDD crossing of just less than 3 miles is one of the longest of its kind, surpassing by 3,174 feet a 20-inch HDD crossing Michels completed in the Bakken region in 2019. 

HDD minimized disturbances to the area and provided a delivery outlet for previously untapped energy sources in both instances. Although the crossings were similar in location, length, and technique, each project included its own unique and awe-inspiring accomplishments. 

Prior to pullback, the 15,426-foot pipeline was assembled by Michels Pipeline, Inc., into two sections–one of 426 feet and another of 15,000 feet. 

When laydown space allows, long sections of pipe can be advantageous because they require fewer pull stoppages to weld pipe strings together. While stopping can generally be accomplished, resuming movement of pipe can be challenging, even with a specific and well-planned drilling fluid and lubrication program. Like the 2019 project, the recently completed project used the pilot hole intersect method and two custom-made drill rigs, each with more than 1-million pounds of push/pull capacity.

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