The Bakken oil fields aren't just about the rigs poking holes in the North Dakota horizon. Most of the action, at least the stuff that makes the money work, happens underground in the thousands of miles of steel pipe crisscrossing the Williston Basin. If you've spent any time looking at energy infrastructure in McKenzie and Dunn Counties, you've run into Arrow Midstream North Dakota. It started as a scrappy independent gathering system on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and turned into a $750 million chess piece in the Great Midstream Consolidation.
Honestly, the story of Arrow is a bit of a rollercoaster. It’s not just one company anymore; it’s a layer cake of acquisitions.
The Fort Berthold Connection
Arrow Midstream Holdings, LLC didn't just pick a random spot to build. They went deep into the heart of the MHA Nation (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara). Back in 2009, they proposed a massive trunk line extension—Phase IB-HWY 22—to gather oil, gas, and produced water. This wasn't just about profit. At the time, North Dakota was literally glowing from space because of all the gas flaring. Arrow's pitch was basically: "Let’s stop burning money and put it in a pipe."
They built a system that eventually spanned over 460 miles. You had 150 miles for crude, 160 miles for natural gas, and 150 miles specifically for water. It was a "triple-header" system. That's rare. Most companies only want the oil. Arrow realized that in the Bakken, if you can’t handle the salty wastewater, you can’t produce the oil.
Why the $750 Million Price Tag?
In 2013, Crestwood Midstream Partners saw what Arrow had built and decided they needed it. Like, really needed it. They paid $750 million in cash to take the whole thing over. People at the time thought the multiple was high—about 10 times EBITDA—but Robert G. Phillips, the CEO of Crestwood's general partner, basically told analysts it was a steal because of the "core of the core" location.
He wasn't wrong. The Arrow system was handling:
- 50,000 barrels of crude per day.
- 15 million cubic feet of rich natural gas.
- 8,500 barrels of water.
By the time the dust settled, Crestwood was handling about 18% of all Bakken crude production. That is a massive footprint for a single system.
Arrow Midstream North Dakota: Who Owns it Today?
If you look for a sign that says "Arrow Midstream" today, you might be looking for a while. The corporate lineage is a mess of paperwork. In late 2023, the energy giant Energy Transfer completed its acquisition of Crestwood Equity Partners.
So, if you’re a landowner or a contractor trying to figure out who to call about a right-of-way issue in McKenzie County, you’re likely dealing with Energy Transfer now. They inherited the Arrow Central Delivery Facility (CDF) near Watford City.
The CDF is the brain of the operation. It’s located at 10681 ND-73. It takes in the raw product from the wells, stores it, and then ships it out to bigger pipes like the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) or the Tesoro High Plains system.
The Regulatory Headache
It hasn't been all smooth sailing. Working on tribal land means dealing with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Tribal Employment Rights Office (TERO). There was a messy legal fight back in 2015 between Arrow and a contractor called 3 Bears Construction. It went all the way to the North Dakota Supreme Court.
The fight was over pipeline liens and whether the state court even had jurisdiction on tribal land. The court basically said, "Wait a minute, this is a tribal sovereignty issue." It’s a reminder that midstream work in North Dakota isn't just about engineering; it’s about navigating complex legal jurisdictions that most people never think about.
Technical Specs: The "Guts" of the System
The capacity of these systems is constantly being pushed. The Arrow Central Delivery Facility expansion projects have aimed to add internal floating roof tanks for crude and additional vertical fixed roof tanks for water.
When we talk about "rich gas" in the Bakken, we mean gas that is heavy with Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) like propane and butane. You can't just put that in a standard heater. It needs processing. The Arrow system feeds into various plants, including the Watford City fractionation facilities, which can handle around 19,000 barrels per day of NGLs.
Environmental Footprint and The Future
Let’s be real—these facilities are big emitters. The Arrow CDF alone has the potential to put out about 2,700 tons of greenhouse gases a year. That sounds like a lot, and it is. It’s roughly the same as 546 cars on the road every year. But the flip side is the flaring. Without this gathering system, producers would be burning that gas into the atmosphere at the wellhead, which is way worse for the environment and the local economy.
As of 2026, the focus has shifted toward carbon capture and reducing "leakage" in these gathering systems. The MHA Nation has been very vocal about wanting more oversight on how these pipes are monitored.
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Actionable Insights for Stakeholders
If you are involved with Arrow Midstream North Dakota—whether as a mineral owner, an investor, or a service provider—here is what you need to know:
- Check the Entity: Always verify if you are dealing with "Arrow Midstream Holdings, LLC" or the parent "Energy Transfer." Most legal notices now route through Dallas, Texas.
- Jurisdiction Matters: If your land is on the Fort Berthold Reservation, remember that TERO regulations and BIA easements trump standard North Dakota state law.
- Water is the Key: The value of the Arrow system isn't just the oil. As Bakken wells age, they produce more water. The water gathering and disposal side of the Arrow assets is arguably more stable than the volatile crude side.
- Infrastructure Access: Producers looking to connect to the system should look at the "Arrow Central Delivery Facility" expansion permits to see where new intake capacity is being added.
The "Arrow" name might be fading into the corporate portfolio of Energy Transfer, but the physical pipes in the North Dakota soil remain some of the most strategic assets in the entire Williston Basin.