Oklahoma-based midstream company ONEOK has completed its 900-miles (1,448.4km) natural gas liquids (NGLs) pipeline between eastern Montana and Rice County in US.
The Elk Creek pipeline extends from the Williston basin to the company’s existing Mid-Continent NGL facilities in Bushton, Kansas.
The project has been developed by ONEOK with an estimated investment of $1.4bn.
The pipeline has the ability to transport up to 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) of NGLs and has the capacity to be expanded to 400,000 bpd with further pump facilities in the near future.
The company expects combined Rocky Mountain NGL volume carried on the Elk Creek and Bakken NGL pipelines to reach over 240,000bpd by the end of the first quarter of next year.
ONEOK president and CEO Terry Spencer said: “The completion of Elk Creek provides critical NGL transportation to producers in the highly productive Williston, Powder River and Denver-Julesburg basins.
“Elk Creek, combined with ONEOK’s investments in additional natural gas processing infrastructure in the region, will help producers significantly reduce natural gas currently flaring in North Dakota.”
The Elk Creek pipeline is expected to strengthen ONEOK’s NGL network in the Bakken, Powder River and Denver-Julesburg regions and provide increased pipeline capacity to meet the increasing NGLs production in the region.
It will also allow the company to ensure safe and reliable NGL supply from the Canadian border to the growing markets in the Texas Gulf Coast.
The Elk Creek natural gas pipeline project is part of ONEOK’s $3.5bn capital-growth projects, which include the 400,000bpd Arbuckle II Pipeline, the 125,000bpd MB-4 NGL fractionator, and the 200Mmcf/d Demicks Lake natural gas processing plant and associated infrastructure.
ONEOK made investment of $700m to expand natural gas and NGL infrastructure in July
In July, ONEOK announced an investment of around $700m towards the expansion of its natural gas and NGL infrastructure.
The investment will be made for expansions of a natural gas facility, an NGL pipeline and certain fractionation facilities.
