Montana Lays Claim to More than $10 Billion in Projects as Bakken Shale, Renewables Drive Growth

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Montana may not boast the massive growth in jobs or tax revenues of neighboring North Dakota, but it is benefiting significantly from the U.S. "shale revolution" and support for renewables. Industrial Info is tracking 117 active and unconfirmed projects in Montana that have a total investment value (TIV) of more than $10 billion. Construction on 50 projects worth about $2.5 billion is expected to kick off within the next 12 months.

Click on the image at right for a graph detailing active projects in Montana by industry.

The Power Industry is the biggest driver of activity in Montana, with 40 projects that have a TIV of $2.81 billion. A considerable portion of these projects are for wind and hydropower facilities. One of the biggest is Absaroka Energy's (Bozeman, Montana) $1 billion Gordon Butte Pumped Storage Project, a proposed plant that would generate renewable energy through four 100-megawatt (MW) Voith hydro turbine generators. The closed-loop facility is to be located on private land in Meagher County, and is currently planned to kick off toward the middle of 2016.

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The Alternative Fuels Industry is not far behind the Power Industry; although it only has four projects in Montana, the TIV stands at $2.83 billion. Ambre Energy Limited (Salt Lake City, Utah) is studying a mine site near Decker, Montana, for a proposed coal-to-liquids plant that would process coal into 18,000 BBL/day of liquid transportation fuels.

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The Metals and Minerals Industry trails the Alternative Fuels Industry in TIV, with 14 projects worth $1.67 billion, while the Oil & Gas Transmission Industry has 15 projects worth $1.34 billion. All other industries have 44 projects with a TIV of $1.61 billion.

The Bakken Shale, which has become a focal point of the surge in U.S. oil exploration and production, sits beneath Montana's northeastern corner. Oil and gas companies are setting up shop in the Bakken, with North Dakota the biggest beneficiary of the nearly 1 million barrels per day (BBL/d) of production. But Montana is also seeing a boom in business, with some observers estimating that total production will double by 2020. For more information, see June 9, 2014, article - Continental Resources Goes Beyond Bakken Shale to Explore Three Forks Potential.

Near the northeastern city of Sidney, XTO Energy Incorporated (Denver, Colorado), a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) (Irving, Texas), is proceeding with a $500 million drilling program. XTO has awarded Helmerich and Payne (Helena, Montana), Frontier Drilling (Roosevelt, Utah) and Nabors Industries Limited (Billings, Montana) contracts to drill about 90 new wells that will produce up to 1,000 BBL/d of crude oil and 10 million to 15 million standard cubic feet per day per well in initial rates. The project kicked off in February and is set to be completed by mid-January 2015.

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Montana also is home to a portion of a 1,200-mile pipeline that will run from Stanley, North Dakota, to a major pipeline hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, also traversing Wyoming and Colorado. Enterprise Products Partners' (NYSE:EPD) (Houston, Texas) highly anticipated project, which is estimated to total between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion, will include a $171 million, 125-mile section in Montana. But with no decision yet made by Enterprise's board of directors, no startup is likely until late 2016 at the very earliest. For more information, see June 30, 2014, article - North Dakota Pipeline Plans Move Forward.

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More than 85% of the TIV--about $8.9 billion--is related to 61 projects that are still in the planning stages, which means that numerous factors could increase, decrease or cancel spending. About 39 projects worth about $1 billion have reached construction stages, and 17 projects worth $491 million are in engineering stages.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.