In its forecast for 2019, ONEOK Inc. points to NGLs, natural gas processing plants and natural gas pipelines as the company's key performance drivers this year.
Specifically, ONEOK forecasts an 11-percent increase in NGLs raw feed throughput volumes to be driven by the completion of the southern leg of Elk Creek Pipeline in the third quarter of 2019, a full year of operations of the Sterling III Pipeline expansion and the West Texas LPG pipeline extension completed in 2018, and continued volume growth from new third-party plant connections and expansions completed in 2018. Also expected are four to six new third-party natural gas processing plant connections, the expansion of five existing third-party plants and connection with ONEOK's Demicks Lake I plant in North Dakota.
For natural gas gathering and processing, the company forecasts a 5-percent increase in natural gas volumes processed, to be driven primarily by ONEOK's Williston Basin natural gas processing plants operating at full capacity, and an additional 200 million cubic feet per day of processing capacity when Demicks Lake I is completed in the fourth quarter.
When it comes to natural gas pipelines, growth is anticipated to be driven by recently completed capital projects, including the WesTex Transmission expansion.
"As we look ahead, 2019 will be a year of project execution," said ONEOK President and CEO Terry Spencer. "With continued production improvements and a large inventory of flared natural gas in the Williston Basin, we expect to immediately benefit from the completion of the Demicks Lake I natural gas processing plant, which we anticipate will start operations nearly full in the fourth quarter 2019. We expect volume to reach approximately 100,000 bpd on our Elk Creek Pipeline in the first quarter of 2020 from Demicks Lake I, third-party processing plants and NGLs currently being railed from the basin."
For more information, visit www. oneok.com or call (877) 208-7318.
