Bakken boosts its gas infrastructure

Oil is still a serious business in the Bakken shale, but when it comes to midstream, the money is on gas

Driven mostly by US production growth concentrated around the oil-generating geology of North Dakota, the Williston basin’s midstream footprint has expanded according to the region’s unique and evolving needs. Gas-to-oil ratios have flipped in the Williston basin over the past six years, increasing more than 90pc since 2016 from 1.51mn ft³/d (42,800m³/d) to 2.8mn ft³/d per bl of oil produced. Drilling activity in the Bakken shale is nearly four times higher than it was two years ago. As in the Permian basin, oil production in the Williston has a high rate of associated gas. But the Bakken’s residual gas is rich in NGLs, and that requires infrastructure generally more akin to North Texas’ Bar