ARM Midstream, a wholly owned subsidiary of Houston-based Asset Risk Management (ARM), intends to construct a crude oil gathering system in the prolific Bakken Shale. The gathering system project is the first phase of ARM’s desire to serve area producers via direct access and greater optionality to crude takeaway markets.

ARM also announced that E&P company Zavanna LLC, which has been operating in the Williston Basin of North Dakota and Montana since 1981, executed a letter of intent to be an anchor customer of the system. Zavanna intends to support the project through an acreage dedication in the core of its McKenzie County, N.D., operations.

In the coming weeks, ARM intends to commence an open season to gauge market interest in producers making long-term commitments for a new crude oil gathering and transportation pipeline system in the Bakken shale play in North Dakota.

The system will gather crude oil from points in McKenzie County and transport to interconnections with both downstream pipelines and rail takeaway facilities. The open season provides potential shippers with the opportunity to make long-term acreage dedications for crude oil gathering and transportation service over the system.