WBI to Receive $500M State Financial Guarantee to Build Natural Gas Pipeline in North Dakota

Kelly Armstrong. (Photo by Mary Steurer/North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – The North Dakota Industrial Commission on Thursday awarded WBI Energy an up to $500 million financial guarantee to build a pipeline that will bring natural gas to the state’s eastern communities.

WBI’s project, which it calls Bakken East, is expected to transport about 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to eastern North Dakota.

Bringing natural gas from the Bakken to the eastern part of the state will help North Dakota’s overall economy, Gov. Kelly Armstrong said. Right now, the eastern part of the state only gets gas from the Viking Gas Transmission pipeline, which spans the U.S. and Canada, so WBI’s project will give eastern North Dakota a more secure power supply, he added.

“Communities need gas to grow,” said Armstrong, who chairs the Industrial Commission. “We are taking a product that we have in excess that is stranded in the Bakken, and we are going to be able to move it across the state to people who need it.”