Developers of a pipeline to bring Bakken natural gas to central and eastern North Dakota are working to shore up customers for that gas.
"At the beginning of February, WBI did kick off its 'binding open season' for the Bakken East project," said North Dakota Pipeline Authority director Justin Kringstad. "That binding open season runs until March 12th."
Kringstad said the proposed capacity for the pipeline is 1.4 billion to 1.7 billion cubic feet per day.
"That will be driven by what comes of that open season process," Kringstad said.
Kringstad said it is an “exciting step” in the process, and is required by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
"It's a time for those in the industry, whether you're a producer, an end-user, a marketing firm — this is your opportunity to put pen-to-paper, make that firm commitment, sign up for that volume, that price, that duration for the contract," Kringstad said. "All that information gets aggregated, and ultimately goes into that FERC process for the decision on moving forward."
Kringstad said another pipeline to export Bakken gas is proceeding. That’s the TC-Kinder Morgan Bakken Express Project.
"That will be coming on line, as planned, in May of this year," Kringstad said. "That's going to add an additional 300 million cubic feet of gas transmission takeaway down to the Cheyenne hub. Again, very timely. It's something that's going to be needed here almost immediately."
