Crestwood Equity Partners LP Aug. 14 announced that it has begun commercial operations at the Bear Den II processing plant in Watford City, N.D. Concurrently, Crestwood brought online the Station 8 Compression Facility, a 27,500 HP electric driven trunkline compression station, and expanded the Bear Den West and Bear Den Loop pipelines, 36 miles of 20-inch high-pressure lines that connect the Bear Den processing complex to the Arrow gathering system.

New gathering records are being set on the Arrow system as a result of debottlenecking projects, increasing initial production rates and reservoir productivity. In August 2019, daily gathering volumes have exceeded 124 MBbls/d of crude oil, 96 MMcf/d of natural gas, and 84 MBbls/d of produced water. Crestwood now expects Arrow producers to connect 110 new wells in 2019. Further, Crestwood has successfully negotiated contract extensions with active producers on the Arrow system resulting in an average remaining term of 9.3 years.

Robert G. Phillips, chairman, president, and CEO, commented, “Today is an important day for Crestwood as the start-up of the Bear Den II plant is a key milestone in our long-term Bakken growth strategy to provide our producers with exceptional customer service and flow assurance for their growing production on the Arrow gathering system. Our project management, operations, safety, environmental and technical services teams did a tremendous job to place these vital infrastructure projects into service with excellent safety records during construction.

“Bear Den II and the associated infrastructure further contribute to Crestwood’s ESG Sustainability initiatives and highlight our commitments to both North Dakota and the MHA Nation by achieving higher gas capture percentages across the Arrow system and reducing emissions on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and in the state of North Dakota. Crestwood’s Bakken team, which includes our Arrow, COLT and MS&L assets and operations, continues to focus on providing its customers with timely well connects, flow assurance, connectivity to premium downstream markets and higher net-backs while meeting the new operating standards established by our ESG Sustainability program.”

The Bear Den II plant is a 120 MMcf/d cryogenic processing plant located adjacent to Crestwood’s 30 MMcf/d Bear Den I plant which was placed into service in 2018. During its start-up phase, Bear Den II is currently processing about 65 MMcf/d of natural gas with the expectation to ramp up to 100% of Arrow’s gas gathering volumes during third-quarter 2019. The Bear Den processing complex has downstream connections to Northern Border Pipeline Company for residue gas and upon its completion, will connect to ONEOK’s Elk Creek pipeline for NGL takeaway. Additionally, Crestwood utilizes its MS&L team to provide NGL flow assurance and optimize net-backs for producers via the COLT Hub and its extensive network of trucking and storage assets.

The Arrow gathering and processing system gathers crude oil, natural gas, and produced water on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in McKenzie and Dunn counties, N.D. The Arrow system consists of about 740 miles of pipe, 150 MMcf/d of processing capacity, and over 75,000 HP of compression, that is supported by a 150,000 acre dedication and long-term contracts with WPX Energy, XTO Energy, Bruin E&P Partners, Rimrock Oil & Gas, Enerplus Resources, PetroShale and QEP Resources.

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