CenterPoint Energy Bakken Crude Services LLC (CEBCS), an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of CenterPoint Energy Inc., has entered into a long-term agreement with XTO Energy Inc., a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corp, to gather XTO’s crude oil production through a new crude oil gathering and transportation pipeline system in North Dakota's Bakken formation. The agreement with XTO is the first entered into from an open season announced by CEBCS Feb. 19.

Under the terms of the agreement, which includes volume commitments, CEBCS will build and operate a gathering system in Dunn and McKenzie counties, ND, for shipment of XTO crude. The system will have capacity of 19,500 b/d.

Earlier this year Targa Resources Partners LP closed on a purchase of Saddle Butte Pipeline LLC’s Williston basin crude oil pipeline and terminal system, including 155 miles of Bakken shale pipeline in McKenzie, Dunn, and Mountrail counties (OGJ Online, Nov. 16, 2012).