ONEOK Partners, L.P. announced that its new 100 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) natural gas processing facility in eastern McKenzie County in North Dakota – the Garden Creek Plant – is now operational and serving producers in the Bakken Shale region.

"The Garden Creek plant is the latest example of ONEOK Partners' ongoing commitment to bring much needed natural gas gathering and processing infrastructure to the highly productive Bakken Shale region," said Terry K. Spencer, ONEOK Partners president. "The completion of this facility is a positive step toward reducing flaring activities in North Dakota and provides producers with increased natural gas processing capacity for their product."

ONEOK Partners previously announced plans to invest approximately $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion for growth projects in the Bakken Shale between now and 2014 in its natural gas gathering and processing and natural gas liquids (NGL) businesses. In addition to the Garden Creek plant, these investments include the construction of the Bakken Pipeline, an approximately 500-mile NGL pipeline and two additional 100 MMcf/d natural gas processing facilities – the Stateline I and Stateline II plants in western Williams County, N.D.

The Bakken Pipeline is expected to be completed by the first half of 2013, and the Stateline I and Stateline II plants are expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2012 and the first half of 2013, respectively.

ONEOK Partners is the largest independent operator of natural gas gathering and processing facilities in the Williston Basin, with a natural gas gathering system of more than 3,500 miles and acreage dedications of more than 1.9 million acres.