ND to Pick Winner in $500 Million Competition to Bring Bakken Gas East

As first reported by Mary Steurer and Amy Dalrymple of the North Dakota Monitor, the North Dakota Industrial Commission will decide Thursday which pipeline company gets up to $500 million in state backing to bring natural gas from the Bakken to eastern North Dakota. That’s $50 million a year for 10 years. Two companies are competing – WBI Energy and Intensity Infrastructure Partners.

WBI Energy proposes building from McKenzie County to Washburn, then to Mapleton near Fargo, with service starting in 2029. Intensity Infrastructure would connect Watford City to Underwood, then to Casselton, though the second phase isn’t finalized yet.

The goal of this project is to reduce the eastern half of the state’s dependency on Canada’s Viking Gas Transmission pipeline, and to support economic development within North Dakota. ND Pipeline Authority Executive Director Justin Kringstad says this will increase power supply security, as eastern ND currently only has one natural gas source: Canada.

The state would purchase pipeline capacity from WBI or Intensity as a financial backstop, then sell it to private companies to recoup the investment. “The No. 1 goal of the program is to release that capacity back to the private sector as quickly as possible,” Kringstad said.