MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018
A proposed natural gas pipeline that would run under the Missouri River and Lake Sakakawea Reservoir in North Dakota is garnering input from the public and the Army Corps of Engineers as oil and gas firm Kinder Morgan seeks the necessary permits to move forward with the project.
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| Hiland Partners Holdings |
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The proposed Bakken Missouri River Crossing Project would install a 16-inch natural gas pipeline under the Missouri River via horizontal directional drilling. |
The Bakken Missouri River Crossing Project, proposed by Kinder Morgan subsidiary Hiland Partner Holdings would comprise a 10-mile stretch of 16-inch pipeline from a gathering system in McKenzie County to the Brogger compressor station, in Williams County. It would cross under a section of the Missouri River where the Garrison Dam creates Lake Sakakawea in the northwestern part of the state. The crossing would be installed via horizontal directional drilling, according to Kinder Morgan’s preliminary plan.
Lowering Flare Rates
Kinder Morgan says each day the new pipeline system would allow the company to capture about 130 million cubic feet of natural gas that would otherwise be flared. Flaring takes place at drilling operations when there is insufficient capacity for processing and transporting the gas being produced. Some of the gas is burned off into the atmosphere.
North Dakota has gas-capture restrictions in place limiting oil and gas companies to flaring no more than 15 percent of the natural gas produced in the state; without additional capacity to transport the gas, some operations have been forced to slow oil production so they don’t produce more gas than they can transport and flare legally.
Prior to the institution of the flaring limits in 2015, producers in the state had flared more than 35 percent of the gas they produced in some months.
Moving Forward
Kinder Morgan says it has completed civil and environmental studies for the project and is working with authorities on permitting; agencies required to sign off on the project include the Corps, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and state bodies including the State Engineer and Department of Health and Native American Tribes.
The company held open houses on the pipeline plan last week in communities near where construction is set to take place. Its current plan is to begin work in the second quarter of 2019 and bring the line into service by the end of 2019.
Tagged categories: Oil and Gas; Pipelines; Program/Project Management; Upcoming projects
