Oneok Begins Land Acquisition Process For New Pipeline

Oneok Partners expects to begin construction of its new pipeline through Crook County later this year, representatives told the County Commissioners. The company has launched an outreach program for landowners along the planned route as it prepares to acquire land rights for the Elk Creek Pipeline.

The new 20-inch pipeline will transport natural gas liquids from the Rocky Mountain region past the termination of Oneok’s Bakken Pipeline in Colorado and ending in Kansas at the company’s NGL facilities.

“It parallels in its entirety the original Bakken Pipeline,” said Dick Vanderbush, Director of Project Development.

Oneok has been meeting with landowners along that route and holding meetings to hear questions, concerns and feedback from the previous project to install the Bakken line. The same landowners will be involved in the new project for the most part because, said Vanderbush, the company plans to offset the new line by around 50 feet from the Bakken line, a “comfort level” for safety and integrity that can be adjusted where necessary at the request of landowners or where the terrain makes it necessary to diverge.

“We are open to other re-routing options and will consider those,” he said. “It’s literally case by case.”

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