The Future Of The Bakken -- September 19, 2024

Locator: 48333B.

Pipelines are occasionally tracked here.

Updates

September 20, 2024: The Daily Note. 

• the Bakken has three main NGL pipeline egress routes (Vantage, Elk Creek, and OKE Bakken) plus six fractionators in the basin that produce C3 and C4+.
• these NGLs are trucked or railed to local markets
• propane can also be injected in Alliance Pipeline to be processed at the Aux Sable plant in Chicago
• operators' rejection of Bakken ethane is reflected in the high heating content of gas flowing on Northern Border Pipeline (NBPL) to the Midwest
• in recent years, that heating content has increased on NBPL as inbound flows from western Canada have been displaced by ethane-rich gas from the Bakken
• but new projects are in the pipeline (pun intended)
• natural gas:
• TC Energy (TRP) has filed for the Bison XPress project to expand NBPL and reverse Bison Pipeline, adding up to 300 MMcf/d of swing egress from the Bakken
• Bison XPress opens the route from the Kurtz meter station in Morton County to the Buffalo meter in Campbell County, WY
• for Bakken NGLs,
• ONEOK's (OKE) Elk Creek expansion: will open 135 Mb/d of takeaway capacity for Y-grade (mixed NGLs) by 1Q26
• another 85 Mb/d of capacity will come online when Kinder Morgan (KMI) finished its planned conversion of the Double H crude oil pipeline to NGL service
  

Original Post

Three companies in the Bakken that fascinate me:

• COP (BR): acquires MRO -- link here. Still not a done deal. FTC has asked for more information; still expected to close by end of year, December 31, 2024.

Chord Energy: Oasis + Whiting, and now adds Enerplus. Closed May 31, 2024.

Devon to acquire Grayson Mill: to close by end of 3Q24 (September 30, 2024).