In a bid to move stranded natural gas out of the Bakken Shale, Northern Border Pipeline has launched a non-binding open season for a 64-mile pipeline between Hess' Tioga processing plant in northwestern North Dakota and an interconnection with the Northern Border system.
The proposed Bakken Header Supply Lateral Project will consist of a 16-inch-diameter pipeline, compression and related facilities, Northern Border Pipeline said. At full capacity, the project will be capable of transporting up to 295,000 Mcf/d.
The open season started Monday and will end November 26. The expected in-service date of the project is early to mid-2017.
"Northern Border has provided market access to Bakken area producers for more than 20 years, and our receipt capability in the area has grown to about 1.7 Bcf/d," Dean Ferguson, president of the Northern Border Operating Co., said in a statement.
"Our Bakken shippers have the flexibility to sell into the Northern Border mainline or directly hold transportation capacity. In either instance they have access to premium netback markets at Ventura and in the Chicago area."
Ferguson added that the project would support North Dakota's objective of reducing the amount of flared gas in the Bakken and the company believe "development of the Bakken Header will add valuable new infrastructure that will help to achieve this goal."
Currently about one-third of the about 1 Bcf/d of gas produced in North Dakota is lost to flaring because of a lack of infrastructure to carry that gas to market.
So far in 2014, production receipts in North Dakota on NBPL's system have averaged a record 400,000 Mcf/d, up roughly 60,000 Mcf/d from the same period last year, according to Platts unit Bentek Energy.
In recent months, a number of industry players have proposed infrastructure projects to help move the glut of Bakken gas out of the region.
