The sun shines over the Bakken shale in North Dakota. (image: Hess Corporation)
It’s a tale of two shales, and two energy companies bulking up their processing capacity for natural gas liquids (NGLs).
Two midstream gas players are putting billions into infrastructure to help handle the NGLs flowing from two of the country’s shale gas fields, according to the investing site The Wall Street Transcript.
The Houston-based Enterprise Products is investing $3.4 billion in pipeline and processing plants in the Eagle Ford shale in Texas, a Credit Suisse analyst, Yves Siegel, told the site. And Tulsa’s ONEOK Partners is putting an estimated $2 billion into pipeline and processing development to handle natural gas and related liquids coming from the Bakken shale that runs under Montana and North Dakota.
“It’s not hard to see billions of dollars getting invested … to take care of all of the natural gas and crude and natural gas liquids that will be coming out of the ground,” Siegel told the site.
Though is the Marcellus shale that runs under the Appalachians slated for any new processing support? As much as 20-percent of the gas haul there is liquid, and the region lacks the processing capacity to handle it all, a financial analyst with Raymond James said last month.
Natural gas liquids include propane, butane, and ethane.