This month, construction projects are arriving in multiples as companies continue to alleviate capacity demands of producers. Many projects are the result of midstream operators moving to provide natural gas liquids or crude takeaway. However, some projects are changing tactics in light of political opposition or changing producer needs.

Recently, the proposed BakkenLink Pipeline, which was intended to carry up to 100,000 barrels (bbl.) of oil from a truck-unloading station and pipeline-gathering system in three North Dakota counties, to Baker, Montana, has had a change of plan. The 250-mile project has been scaled back to 144 miles, and will cost an estimated $126 million, roughly half the cost of the original plan.

Now, rather than connecting to TransCanada Corp.’s controversial Keystone XL pipeline, for which it was originally intended, the pipeline will be destined for a rail loading station that is being developed near Fryburg, which is about 30 miles west of Dickinson in southwestern North Dakota.

Also, Royal Dutch Shell Plc. announced that it is considering a reversal of product flow on its Houma, Louisiana, to Houston, Texas, pipeline to take advantage of production from Texas shale plays like the Barnett, Eagle Ford and Bakken, and couple it with the price advantage of Louisiana markets. Though the pipeline will do little to relieve the glut of oil accumulating in the Cushing crude oil storage hub, it will help oil producers in oil-prone shale regions such as the Eagle Ford shale play in South Texas realize bigger profits in Louisiana markets.

The pipeline would distribute about 300,000 bbl. of crude oil per day, across 300 miles of Gulf of Mexico coastline in Texas and Louisiana. If the project moves forward, Shell expects the new service would begin in early 2013, subject to regulatory approval.

Elsewhere, Dominion Resources Inc. is moving forward with its plans for the construction of a large natural gas processing and fractionation plant along the Ohio River in Natrium, West Virginia.

The first phase of construction includes facilities that can process up to 200 MMcf of natural gas per day and fractionate 36,000 bbl. of natural gas liquids per day. This phase of the project is more than 90% contracted and is expected to be in service by December 2012. The new facility is a response to the increased demand for additional processing and fractionation capacity for production in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays.

Wet gas from West Virginia and Ohio will be delivered to the TL-404 line by Dominion Transmission, Dominion's interstate natural gas pipeline and storage subsidiary, and by Dominion East Ohio, Dominion's natural gas distribution subsidiary in Ohio.

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