ONEOK Partners Outlines Bakken And Woodford Shale Investments

ONEOK Partners, L.P. will invest $405-470 million between now and the end of 2011 for projects in the Bakken Shale in the Williston Basin in North Dakota and the Woodford Shale in Oklahoma – enabling the partnership to meet the rapidly growing needs of producers in these areas. These projects are part of the previously announced $2.5-3.5 billion of growth projects the partnership has identified for investment between now and the end of 2015.  
  These investments include construction of a 100 MMcf/d natural gas processing facility – the Garden Creek plant – in eastern McKenzie County, ND and related expansions that are estimated to cost between $150-210 million and will double the partnership’s natural gas processing capacity in the Williston Basin. Completion is expected in late 2011.
  In addition to constructing a processing plant, ONEOK Partners’ natural gas gathering and processing segment will invest an additional $200-$205 million during 2010 and 2011 for new well connections, expansions and upgrades to its existing natural gas gathering system infrastructure in the Bakken Shale. These investments include an expansion and upgrade of the gas gathering systems and adding new compression to serve the new Garden Creek plant; gas gathering system and compression upgrades to bring the existing Grasslands processing plant to its full capacity by year end, and $90 million to connect more than 300 wells in 2010 and 400 wells in 2011 to its Williston Basin gathering system.
  In the Woodford Shale in Oklahoma, the partnership will invest $55 million in 2010 and 2011. These investments include connecting the western Oklahoma gathering system to its existing Maysville processing facility in central Oklahoma, allowing it to optimize its Oklahoma processing capacity and accommodate growing volumes in the Woodford Shale area. The project is under construction and expected to be completed later this year. These investments include $20 million for new well connections in 2010 and 2011 to gather additional Woodford Shale gas volumes.
  In the partnership’s NGL segment, investments include expanding the existing Oklahoma gathering system to connect a new processing plant. This will increase accessibility of this new supply source to the partnership’s Arbuckle Pipeline and Mont Belvieu, TX fractionation facilities.