Houston TX-based crude oil gatherer and marketer Great Northern Midstream LLC has selected has selected crude transport management technology from TouchStar, a world leader in advanced enterprise mobility for the oil and gas industry. The system will be used by Great Northern subsidiaries ND Land LLC, BakkenLink Pipeline LLC, and Great Northern Gathering & Marketing LLC.
TouchStar is implementing its field-proven CrudePac fleet automation system for Great Northern, designed to precisely track production deliveries of crude oil in real time, whether truck-to-tank, truck-to-train, or truck-to-pipeline. The TouchStar electronic ticketing and invoicing system was developed specifically for crude oil and water hauling applications.
TouchStar Sales Manager Dave Fredericks explains, “Great Northern had reviewed a variety of fleet automation software systems before selecting TouchStar as their business partner in North Dakota. Our long-term experience as a solutions provider for complex oil and gas interfaces, along with our strong suite of mobility, enterprise, and middleware software products definitely made the difference. We also had the technical expertise our customer, Great Northern Midstream, was looking for, plus we offered a much broader selection of compatible hardware platforms to match their operational and budgetary objectives. Equally important, our systems are considered to be industrial grade, and are designed to handle the extreme environments--brutally cold, dusty and jarring haul roads--that Great Northern faces on a daily basis in North Dakota.”
Great Northern is gathering and marketing crude oil from the Bakken Field, a huge 200,000-square-mile subsurface basin underlying western North Dakota, Montana, and Saskatchewan (Canada). Partnering with Lunderby Trucking of Sidney MT, Great Northern transports thousands of barrels of oil a day via a mix of trucks, trains, and pipelines. The company is nearing completion of a 132-mile, eight-inch and 12-inch line called the BakkenLink Pipeline with six different receiving points for crude oil throughout North Dakota. The pipeline will connect, at its southern end, with Great Northern’s new railhead facility at Fryburg ND, and will help ensure improved access by Great Northern to its key oil markets across the United States.
The newly installed TouchStar CrudePac automated electronic ticketing/invoicing system for Great Northern is in its pilot stage and is being tested in multiple trucks currently with excellent results to date. Great Northern Midstream’s management is planning to expand the system fleet-wide within a few months.