A Bakken Shale natural gas pipeline project is expected to increase North Dakota’s efforts to raise production and reduce flaring, according to the director of the state’s Pipeline Authority.

north dakota natural gas productoin

MDU Resources Group Inc.’s pipeline unit, WBI Energy Inc. earlier this month received approval for an expansion project to build the North Bakken pipeline. Construction should start in the next few weeks, and the lines would be in service by year’s end, said Pipeline Authority director Justin Kringstad.

“This system frees up the ability for more drilling and associated oil and gas production north of Lake Sakakawea, an area that is particularly congested and physically out of interstate gas pipeline capacity today,” he noted. It is a choke point for any additional gas...