MDU Resources Eyes More Interest For Bakken Gas Pipeline

NEW ORLEANS, March 24 (Reuters) - MDU Resources Group Inc is looking for more natural gas producers to sign up to use capacity on a planned $650 million pipeline that would transport the fuel through North Dakota to Minnesota, the company's chief executive said on Monday.

The company in January launched a 120-day period for prospective customers of the pipeline to sign supply agreements to transport natural gas.

"We're encouraged by the reaction of the marketplace, but I'd be getting ahead of myself if I said we're ready to build" the pipeline, Dave Goodin, MDU's chief executive, said during an interview at the Howard Weil energy conference in New Orleans. "We need some binding commitments."

Goodin declined to specify how much business the proposed pipeline has inked so far.

Given that roughly a third of all natural gas produced in North Dakota's Bakken shale is flared, pressure has been strong from political and environmental groups to build new pipelines. Yet with the cost of natural gas near decade-lows, producers have been reluctant to spend significant amounts of money to address the issue.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Bernard Orr)