A subsidiary of Meritage Midstream Services II LLC on Monday launched a binding open season through July 10 to gauge support to expand an existing pipeline that could move natural gas liquids (NGL) from two processing plants in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin (PRB).

Thunder Creek NGL Pipeline LLC wants to build origin and destination points that would allow shippers to move NGLs from its 50 Buttes Processing Plant in Campbell County and the Steamboat I Natural Gas Plant 100 miles to the south in Converse County.

The proposed project would establish an interconnect with Oneok Bakken Pipeline LLC at Well Draw in Converse County, potentially enabling shippers to access Oneok’s Niobrara Lateral and ultimately its Elk Creek expansion. Elk Creek is designed to move 240,000 b/d of NGLs from the Rockies to the Midcontinent.

More information about the open season is available on Meritage’s website.

The open season comes as a broader infrastructure buildout is underway in parts of the Rockies as producers have increased their activity in both the PRB and Colorado’s Denver-Julesburg Basin. In the Niobrara formation, one of seven major onshore unconventional plays tracked each month by the Energy Information Administration, both oil and natural gas production are again expected to increase this month to about 752,000 b/d and 5.54 Bcf/d, respectively.

Depending on shipper interest, Meritage said it could complete construction in 3Q2019, or about the same time as the Steamboat facility, which is currently under construction, is expected to enter service. Meritage said last month the 200 MMcf/d plant would more than double its cryogenic processing capacity in the PRB to 380 MMcf/d.

Denver-based Meritage, which is backed by energy focused private investment firm Riverstone Holdings LLC, operates more than 1,200 miles of pipeline and has another 190 miles under construction in the PRB, where it also provides natural gas liquids and oil services.