Though horizontal directional drilling (HDD) is considered the most effective pipeline installation method, Raelison Novaes, Michels Corporation, USA, suggests there are still significant risks to address. Created in 1956 by construction of the Garrison Dam on the Missouri River, Lake Sakakawea is part of a flood control and hydroelectric power generation project in North Dakota. With a length of 285 km, an average width of 3-5 km and a maximum width of 23 km, Lake Sakakawea limits the ability to transport natural gas takeaway from the Bakken Formation in northwest North Dakota to pipeline interconnects to the southeast. As a result, the existing infrastructure was not sufficient to meet transportation needs for the natural gas produced during the crude oil extraction process. Faced with costly and inefficient options of building hundreds of kilometers of pipeline around Lake Sakakawea or transporting liquid natural gas around the lake in tanker trucks, much of the natural gas was safely burned as a flare to prevent release of hydrocarbons directly into the atmosphere. Already transporting half of the natural gas produced in the Bakken region, WBI Energy, Inc. (WBI), a subsidiary of MDU Resources Group, Inc., contracted Michels Corporation in 2021 to build the transmission pipeline and trenchless segments of its North Bakken expansion project. Michels is an energy and infrastructure construction company based in Brownsville, WI and serves customers throughout the world.
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