A natural gas processing facility in southeast New Mexico’s Delaware Basin region was set to expand in response to growing demand and gas production in the area.
Piñon Midstream on Thursday announced expansions at its Dark Horse Facility in Lea County, where natural gas produced by the oil and gas industry is treated and sequestered.
The facility works to reduce carbon emissions by sequestered carbon dioxide (CO2), and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) through gas injection wells at the site.
“The Dark Horse Facility provides a state-of-the-art, purpose-built, sour natural gas treating and carbon capture solution for oil and natural gas producers operating in the Delaware Basin,” read a Thursday company announcement.
About 100,000 metric tons of CO2 and H2S were sequestered at Dark Horse as of June 22, the announcement read.
Piñon is adding additional sour gas treatment capacity by 270 million cubic feet per day (mmcf/d) with construction expected to begin in the third quarter of 2023 and go into service by January 2024.
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The facility will also add about 150 million cubic feet per day of compression capacity, bringing its total capacity to 350 mmcf/d via two compression stations going into service next year.
In April, the site added a second acid gas injection (AGI) well, upping injection capacity to 20 mmcf/d of treated gas, sufficient to accommodate the facility’s 500 mmcf/d gas treatment capacity.
“Additionally, this well ensures full operational redundancy, ensuring high runtimes while minimizing flaring,” read a statement from the company. “The AGI injection capacity of Piñon’s sour natural gas treating system in New Mexico is the largest of any permitted, active system in the state.”
Dark Horse currently operates two gas treatment units at capacity of 400 gallons per thousand cubic feet each, along with two 18,000-foot gas injection wells and 50,000 horsepower of compression.
The site also has 35 miles of high-pressure gas gathering and delivery pipelines.
Piñon’s gas gathering and treatment system include the Grande sweet gas redelivery pipeline, about 22 miles of high-pressure pipe that connects the Dark Horse facility with four region processers, and the company is actively seeking other connections in the region to service its customers.
“Additionally, Piñon now provides tailored solutions that enable customers to source sweet natural gas directly from the Grande pipeline system,” the announcement read. “This solution gives customers a cost-effective and reliable method to optimize their gas lift operations.”
Natural gas processing could see increased demand as gas production in the Permian Basin was expected to grow in the coming month more than any other U.S. shale region, according to the latest data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The Permian Basin was expected to add 60 million cubic feet per day (cf/d) of gas production in July, the EIA reported, for a total of about 22.9 billion cf/d.
That’s the second-most in the U.S. following 35.3 billion cf/d forecast for the Appalachia region in July, the EIA reported, which was third in the U.S. for growth, adding 25 million cf/d.
The Bakken region in North Dakota was expected to have the second-most growth in the U.S., the EIA reported, adding 29 million cf/d next month for a total of 3.2 billion cf/d.
New Mexico maintained its position as having the second-most oil and gas drilling rigs among oil-producing states at 106 rigs as of Friday, according to Baker Hughes, after adding two rigs in the last week.
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