Two pipeline companies have said they are interested in building a pipeline to bring natural gas from the Bakken to central and eastern North Dakota.
One is WBI Energy, the other Intensity Infrastructure Partners.
"This will be the first large scale project that will directly target new economic development within the state itself," said North Dakota Pipeline Authority Executive Director Justin Kringstad. "When we look at industrial opportunities in eastern North Dakota, the current pipeline infrastructure is not adequate to meet any meaningful growth for industrial power generation. So there will need to be new pipeline capacity to be developed for eastern North Dakota."
Kringstad said the project will also help North Dakota’s oil and gas industry. He said in Bakken wells, as oil output decreases, natural gas production increases.
"We're looking five, ten, fifteen years from now, where all the forecasts are suggesting growing volumes of natural gas," Kringstad said. "The current infrastructure available in western North Dakota today is not adequate to meet significantly growing natural gas egress out of the region."
Kringstad said he will make a recommendation on which project to support to the Industrial Commission at its next meeting. State law allows the state to buy $50 million in volume space on the pipeline each year for the next ten years, and the state could sell that off to private companies. But backers of the project say there will likely ben enough customers, so that $50 million probably won't be needed.
