MDU announced that its subsidiary, WBI Energy Inc, has put the North Bakken expansion pipeline project into service in North Dakota. The intended expansion is consistent with MDU Resources’ strategy to meet the increasing customer demand to transport natural gas in North Dakota. The expansion project has the capacity to distribute 250 million cubic feet of natural gas per day (MMcf/d) but can increase the capacity to 625 MMcf/d in case of a rise in demand from customers.
The North Bakken Expansion project has increased WBI Energy’s pipeline capacity to 2.4 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas per day, which would allow the company to tap the increasing production in the Bakken region and benefit from the same.
The United States Geographical Survey shows that the Bakken formation has a mean estimate of 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered and technically recoverable oil. In addition, the Bakken Shale has 4.9 trillion cubic feet of associated natural gas in North Dakota. The expected huge volume of reserves in this region will lead to high exploration and production activities enhancing demand for midstream services. MDU Resources’ decision of expanding midstream operation in this prolific Bakken region is going to boost earnings over the long-term.
