Worthington Industries Acquires Tank Storage Division of Steffes Corporation in North Dakota

April 2, 2014 Kirk Eggleston

Worthington Industries expands its reach in the Bakken, purchasing the tank storage manufacturing division of Steffes Corporation for an undisclosed amount in late March 2014. Steffes Corporation manufactures oilfield and salt water storage tanks for clients in the Bakken Shale and Williston Basin, and generated $25-million in revenue in 2013. Worthington will acquire Steffes Corporation's Dickinson, N.D. plant in the deal, which currently employs 35 people.

“This acquisition complements our strategy to grow the energy business by adding to our geographical reach, so we can serve customers in the east, central and now the important northwest region of the U.S.,” said Andrew Billman, President of the Worthington Industries cylinder business. “The Bakken is one of the most oil rich areas in the country with significant drilling taking place. We anticipate adding capacity to the operations and strengthening our energy platform with this acquisition.”

The acquisition of the tank division of Steffes Corporation adds to Worthington’s existing facilities in Ohio that manufacture gas separators, gas production units and related wellhead equipment for oil and gas exploration customers in the Marcellus, Utica, Bakken and Mid-Continent regions. In April 2013, Worthington also acquired Kansas-based Palmer Manufacturing and Tank Inc., a manufacturer of both steel and fiberglass tanks for the Bakken area.

Koch Cancels Proposed Bakken Pipeline - Dakota Express Pipeline

January 22, 2014 Kirk Eggleston

The "Dakota Express Pipeline", proposed in June 2013 by Koch Pipeline, will not be built according to a Bloomberg report. The project included a 250,000 b/d pipeline to transport oil out of the Bakken in Western North Dakota to receipt points in Illinois.

With production in the Bakken, nearing 1 million b/d, the need for pipelines is only increasing. Although it is not known why the company decided to axe the project, Company Spokesman, Jake Reit, did confirm the decision to Lynn Doan with Bloomberg, saying:

"the non-binding open season for the Dakota Express Pipeline is no longer being pursued"

Pipeline companies prefer to have long-term, binding commitments for capacity. If commitments do not reach a certain point, the project will be called off. As a very loose rule of thumb, pipeline companies look for commitments of 60% or more of designed capacity before they move forward. In this case, that could mean Koch failed to receive commitments for 150,000 b/d.

This isn't the first proposed pipeline to get canceled: Oneok canceled plans for the Bakken Crude Express Pipeline in late 2012.

The Koch cancellation is surprising considering there is more than 500,000 b/d of oil moving by rail out of the basin today.

Enable Midstream Is Planning an IPO - Bakken Gathering Assets Included

December 5, 2013 R.T. Dukes

Enable Midstream's Gathering and Processing Assets

Enable Midstream (ENBL) has filed for an initial public offering and expects to raise net proceeds of $500 million to be used in expansion projects. The company will trade as a master limited partnership (MLP).

The deal includes Bakken gathering assets that were contributed by CenterPoint Energy.

The gathering system commenced operations in November 2013 and is expected to be in full operation in the third quarter of 2014. Enable Midstream estimates it could spend as much as $110 million on the Bakken system.

The company's Bakken system will have capacity of 19,500 b/d when fully operational and that entire amount is contracted through 2028. While only partially in service for most of the year, Enable estimates it will gather a little less than 10,000 b/d in 2014.

The company was formed in May of 2013 by affiliates of CenterPoint Energy, OGE Energy and ArcLight Capital Partners. The assets include CenterPoint's interstate pipelines and field services, as well as OGE's midstream business.

Enable Midstream is managed by a general partner whose governance is shared by CenterPoint Energy and OGE Energy on a 50/50 basis.

About Enable Midstream

Enable Midstream owns, operates and develops strategically located natural gas and crude oil infrastructure assets. Enable Midstream's initial assets include approximately 11,000 miles of gathering pipelines, 11 major processing plants with approximately 1.9 billion cubic feet per day of processing capacity, approximately 7,800 miles of interstate pipelines, approximately 2,300 miles of intrastate pipelines and eight storage facilities comprising 86.5 billion cubic feet of storage capacity.

Read the full press release at oge.com

Oneok Investing More In Bakken Midstream Infrastructure

November 20, 2013 R.T. Dukes

Oneok is planning another $650-780 million in infrastructure investments in the Bakken.

The company will expand its Bakken NGL Pipeline, expand gathering & compression in the area, and build a seventh NGL processing plant in McKenzie County, ND.

Oneok will spend $100 million to expand the Bakken NGL pipeline that came online in April of 2013. The pipeline was originally planned with capacity of 60,000 b/d and is currently being expanded to 135,000 b/d. This will mark the second expansion and grow capacity to 160,000 b/d.

The Lonesome Creek processing plant (200 mmcfd) will have a price tag of $320-390 million and the expansion of gathering infrastructure is estimated to cost $230-290 million.

“Production in the Williston Basin continues to increase with no signs of leveling off or slowing,” said Terry K. Spencer, president. “The new Lonesome Creek plant and related infrastructure will be well-positioned to capitalize on existing ONEOK Partners assets and provide producers in the area with essential natural gas processing capacity....”

Oneok will have approximately 800 mmcfd of processing capacity in North Dakota when the Lonesome Creek Plant is completed.

Three of the seven planned plants are yet to be completed. The Garden Creek II and III are under construction and ground will be broken on the Lonesome Creek Plant soon.

Grasslands (90 mmcfd)
Garden Creek I (100 mmcfd) online December 2011
Stateline I (100 mmcfd) completed September 2012
Stateline II (100 mmcfd) expected April 2013
Garden Creek II (100 mmcfd) expected completion Q3 2014
Garden Creek III (100 mmcfd) expected completion Q1 2015
Lonesome Creek (200 mmcfd) expected in late 2015

Crestwood Midstream Acquires Arrow Midstream for $750 Million - Expanding Bakken Footprint

October 10, 2013 R.T. Dukes

Crestwood Midstream is acquiring Arrow Midstream for $750 million. The deal will make Crestwood Midstream one of the largest Bakken midstream companies. The deal builds on the recent acquisition of Inergy Midstream that closed on Monday, October 7th.

“We are very excited about the addition of the Arrow assets to Crestwood’s rapidly expanding crude services business and our Bakken Shale footprint,” stated Robert G. Phillips, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Crestwood’s general partner. “.....The Bakken Shale is a core area for our future growth, and by extending our platform upstream of COLT, Crestwood will be expanding and optimizing the full suite of liquids value chain services we can provide for both our producer and demand-side customers.”

Arrow Midstream's assets are located on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and include:

150 miles of crude oil pipelines moving 50,000 b/d
160 miles of natural gas gathering lines moving 15 mmcfd
150 miles of water gathering lines moving 8,500 b/d
Saltwater disposal wells
Central delivery point with multiple pipeline outlets
Automate truck loading facility

The assets are supported by operator commitments from 150,000 acres in Dunn and McKenzie counties. Current and future plans call for the expansion of capacity to 125,000 b/d of oil, 100 mmcfd, and 40,000 b/d of water.

After the close of this transaction, we will be one of the largest Bakken midstream service providers servicing approximately 18% of current total Bakken crude oil production. Nationwide, we will be handling over 470,000 Bbls/d of crude oil and NGLs in addition to over 2 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas through our gathering systems and transportation assets."