Update On The Bill Sanderson Gas Plant West Of Williston -- July 4, 2020

Updates

January 14, 2012: Bill Sanderson completed; ready to go on line.

Original Post 

Link here: plans moving ahead for Bill Sanderson gas plant.

A company that’s building a gas plant to service XTO crude oil production is asking the state for an expedited process for two proposed pipelines that will provide takeaway for the Bill Sanderson Gas Plant in Williams County.

Denver-based OE2 North is proposing to lay two pipelines for the plant that is being built 15 miles west of Williston. One, an 8-inch steel pipeline 1.28 miles in length will carry up to 80,000 barrels per day of NGLs. The other, 4.67-mile, 20-inch steel pipeline will carry up to 250 million cubic feet per day of residue gas. The cost of the two pipelines is an estimated $6 million.

OE2 in its application materials said it will construct both pipelines on privately owned land, for which the company has already acquired rights of way.

The lines will also be co-located for approximately the first mile, at which point the 8-inch NGL line will tie into an existing, third-party pipeline. The second line, a 20-inch residue gas pipeline, will continue another 3.39 miles along existing infrastructure before tying into an existing third-party pipeline.

Above-ground facilities will include a 100- by 100-foot interconnect site at the end of the 8-inch NGL line and a 250- by 250-foot interconnect at the end of the 20-inch residue line, as well as pipeline markers and cathodic test stations along the way.

The lines will not require any compressor stations. Pressure from the associated Bill Sanderson Gas Plant will be adequate for the projected flow rates.

The pipes will be pre-coated with a fusion-bonded epoxy external coating for corrosion protection, and all welds will be nondestructively tested to ensure their structural integrity and compliance with applicable USDOT regulations. Each weld will be externally coated for corrosion resistance.

OE2 hoped to begin construction of the pipelines by July 2020, or after all necessary permits and approvals are in hand. Construction will take about 12 weeks, including backfilling and finish grading.

Much more at the link.

This is a different pipeline discussion than the one at this link.

Back to the Bill Sanderson Gas Processing Plant.

• regulators okay gas plant, pipeline projects in the Bakken, Bismarck Tribune, May 13, 2020;
• Outrigger Energy II
• proposal:
• a processing plant along the North Dakota-Montana state line; and,
• a pipeline in Williams and Mountrail counties
• construction on the plant was to begin in May, 2020
• capacity: up to 250 million cubic feet per day of natural gas 
• Outrigger Energy mentioned by RBN Energy, January 24, 2020; 
• mentioned in the blog, January 23, 2020;  
• mentioned in the blog, January 8, 2020; with comment by eagle-eye reader;

North Dakota natural gas processing plants are tracked here. It appears the Bill Sanderson plant will be the third largest in the Bakken. Hess still has the largest at "425" and Oasis has one at "320."

********************************

Age Range Fact-Checked By The NY Times

 

*********************************

The Virus That Came Out At Night

Among all the other peculiarities of the corona virus, it appears we have discovered another one. The corona virus apparently is most active at night.

Is it possible the virus is carried by mosquitoes?

The following notice was sent out to all residents by our apartment complex manager this past week. Yes, we have "trash valet / front-door pick-up" service. What a great country.

Government-mandated curfews due to Corona virus -- great excuse to shut down protestors. LOL.

Hess Reclaims Bragging Rights To Largest Natural Gas Processing Plant In North Dakota -- April 27, 2019

Natural gas processing plants in North Dakota are tracked here. 

Updates

April 27, 2019: see also this post on the Vantage Pipeline.

April 27, 2019: see second comment below --

Have often theorized the Hess and Targa want to deliver ethane to a cracker and convert the ethane pipeline to propane as Alberta has a propane cracker to be built. Targa owns half of the Little Missouri gas plant and is a supplier for Gulf Coast crackers.

There has been almost no word on a cracker for years- either dead or in the quiet phase.

April 27, 2019: see first comment below --

The Alliance pipeline, which only has conditioned Nat gas, ends in Illinois where that huge Nat gas is. Palermo, ND, has a lateral to that pipeline. Conditioned gas has all the sulfides, chlorides and non carbon gases removed.

It's a good way to deliver propane and butane etc to industrial parts. Nat gas delivered to users has an upper BTU limit, so they must be removed.

Original Post   

See tag, "NG_Plants_ND," although I have failed to tag a lot of posts that should have been tagged. My bad.

For gas plants in North Dakota, the "official site" of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority, link here.

I could be wrong, but when one thinks of natural gas processing in North Dakota, this is sort of the status in chronological order:

• Hess is the oldest; has always been there; has made Tioga what it is -- the oil capital of ND (Williston is "Boom Town, USA"); if Hess was "ND Gas" it was somewhat local;
• ONEOK was the big "outsider" to come into North Dakota at the very beginning of the boom; it probably did more than any other company to move the Bakken natural gas industry along; it deserves a lot of credit for having so much "faith" in North Dakota
• Oasis: one of the independent, small operators who saw the potential for NG plants; may have the largest plant (at one time it did, apparently, but I've lost track of who has the biggest plant now); updated below;
• CLR: does a lot of natural gas gathering but not known (at least in my mind) as a NG operator in the Bakken

All of that as background for newbies. If others have a different perspective on history of NG gathering and processing in the Bakken I would love to hear that, and post it (anonymously, of course, if so desired).

Disclaimer: I estimate that I understand 1% of all that is going on in the Bakken with regard to crude oil; I understand even less about the natural gas industry.

Hess to expand its natural gas processing capacity at its Tioga Gas Plant by 150 million cubic feet per day, creating a total of 400 million cfpd processing capacity north of the Missouri River. Link here.

• cost: the expansion to cost approximately $150 million gross; or, 
• $30 million net to Hess Midstream
•  will add residue and y-grade liquids processing capacity to the existing full fractionation and ethane extraction capability of the current plant
• I've forgotten but I believe Hess has a huge pipeline moving ethane from its Tioga plant to Canada (one pipeline not killed by the Obama administration)

Digression: this is really cool. For newbies, I have always divided the ND oil footprint into two geographic areas, the north and the south. The north would be the Bakken boom on both sides of the river; the south would be the legacy Red River wells and some Bakken in the southwestern part of the state. But looks like one can be a bit more specific, with four geographic areas:

• north of the river, Bakken boom (CLR)
• south of the river, excluding the reservation, Bakken boom (everyone)
• the reservation, south of the river, Bakken boom (KOG, now Whiting, Senator Dorgan)
• southwestern North Dakota: legacy Red River, and some Bakken boom (CLR)

Now back to Hess.

Again, repeating: for gas plants in North Dakota, the "official site" of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority, link here.

At that link, scroll down to see the spreadsheet. You can click on the spreadsheet to make it bigger. The spreadsheet now goes out to 2021. Oasis had bragging rights: it has the largest natural gas processing plant -- Wild Basin had a capacity of 320 million cfpd. The Oasis Wild Basin plant is in McKenzie County, south of the river.

But now Hess has reclaimed bragging rights. With its planned expansion, it will have a capacity of 400 million cfpd. 

How does 400 million cfpd compare with other natural gas processing plants across the US? I'm glad you asked.

See the EIA summary at this link. Wow, make my day. Making America great. Yeah, 400 million cfpd is huge, but there are plants out there with 1 billion and 2 billion cfpd capacity. The west has a few huge plants, but look at the number and size of the plants in Texas.

Okay, hold that image.

Now, move up to the northeast. Hard to make that out? Go to this link with this graphic:

Pretty impressive, huh?

Besides the "blue dots," there is something else of interest. Look at all the grey -- the shale plays. The graphic did not break out conventional plays and many (most?) of the shale plays overlap/extend the conventional plays.

Most surprising "data points" on that graph, at least for me, two:

• the size of the Illinois blue dot; and, 
• that huge shale play in Michigan; see this link; the narrative is very, very good

Well, that should keep enthusiasts busy all weekend. Go to the links, which will take you to more links, and before you know it, you will be in so deep in a rabbit hole, you will never get out. LOL.