Kevin L. Burdick
Executive Vice President And Chief Commercial Officer at ONEOK
Thank you, Walt. We saw strong full year natural gas gathering and NGL volumes on our system in 2022 despite several weather events during the year, providing continued growth in our primarily fee-based earnings. NGL volumes were particularly strong in the Rocky Mountain region, increasing 12% year-over-year due to higher activity levels and increased opportunities to recover ethane from the region. Well connects across our operations increased 24% compared with 2021, and we saw a solid return of activity in the Mid-Continent driving a significant increase in well connections in the region and higher natural gas processing volumes on our system. We'll continue to see the benefits of this activity throughout 2023 as volumes ramp.
Our Natural Gas Pipelines segment exceeded its 2022 financial guidance range on higher earnings from long-term storage services and higher rates from renegotiated contracts customers continue to see the value in our storage assets, and we continue to evaluate opportunities to expand these services. Turning to 2023. A Key drivers for our higher 2023 guidance includes stable producer activity, providing higher natural gas and NGL volumes across our systems, continued strength in fee-based earnings and rates and higher expected realized commodity prices due to hedges placed at higher price levels compared with 2022. At the midpoints, our 2023 volume guidance would result in a 7% increase in total NGL volumes and an 11% increase in total natural gas processing volumes compared with 2022.
In the natural gas liquids segment, we expect volume growth to be driven by strong producer levels, a producer activity across our operations, a continuing the momentum we saw from producers in 2022. Higher average fee rates will also contribute to the segment's earnings as contract escalators continue to be realized throughout the year. NGL market dynamics point toward a continued improvement in global demand with China reopening and with lower natural gas prices, resulting in an attractive environment for U.S. pet chems. We expect this current market to drive increased activity from the U.S. petrochemical industry relative to global pet chems while the U.S. position being with the U.S. position being one of the lowest on the global cost curve.
On our system, we expect the Permian Basin to stay in high ethane recovery in 2023 and for the Mid-Continent to be in partial recovery as natural gas prices fluctuate seasonally. We also expect to continue to see opportunities to incentivize ethane recovery in the Rocky Mountain region this year. We are on track to complete our 125,000 barrel per day MB-5 fractionator in Mont Belvieu early in the second quarter of 2023. And we recently announced MB-6 which we expect to be complete in the first quarter of 2025. Moving on to the natural gas gathering and processing segment. We expect volume growth again this year in both the Rocky Mountain and Mid-Continent regions, driven by producer activity levels, resulting in more well connections than in 2022.
In the Rocky Mountain region, we expect processed volumes to grow 11% at the midpoint compared with 2022 and averaged nearly 1.5 billion cubic feet per day in 2023. Already this year, despite winter weather, we've reached a process volumes as high as 1.46 billion cubic feet per day in February, a new record for the segment. We completed construction on the 200 million cubic feet per day Demicks Lake III processing plant this month, providing our customers with needed capacity as well as operational redundancy. Activity levels in the Williston Basin remains strong, particularly considering we are just entering March. There are currently more than 40 rigs and 22 completion crews operating in the basin compared with just over 30 rigs and 13 completion crews at this time last year.
Producers remain committed to the region, and we anticipate a few more rigs will return as we move into spring. At our guidance midpoint, we expect to connect 500 wells in the region this year a nearly 40% increase compared with 2022. We've already connected nearly 90 wells through February and have remained steady at more than 20 rigs operating on our dedicated acreage. Additionally, there remains a large inventory of around 500 DUCs basin-wide with approximately half on our acreage. Keep in mind that in the Bakken, producer economics are driven by crude oil and customers -- our customers are some of the largest and most well capitalized in the country.
This means recent fluctuations in commodity prices and specifically lower natural gas prices have not had an impact on producer activity levels on our acreage. We also expect gas-to-oil ratios to remain strong and continue to trend higher in the future, which can drive volume on our systems even without increased producer activity. In the Mid-Continent region, we continue to see positive activity with approximately 10 rigs currently operating on our acreage and more than 50 across the region. We expect process volumes to grow 12% at our guidance midpoint compared with 2022 and average more than 700 million cubic feet per day in 2023. Rig activity across the basin will also continue to drive additional NGLs to our system.
In the natural gas pipeline segment, we continue to expect strong demand for natural gas storage and transportation services in 2023. At the end of 2022, nearly 80% of our natural gas storage capacity was contracted under long-term agreements, and our pipeline transportation capacity was nearly 95% contracted. We expect similar levels in 2023. Work continues on a project that will expand our storage capabilities in Oklahoma by 4 billion cubic feet and we are currently evaluating reactivating previously idled storage facilities in Oklahoma and Texas. Construction also continues on our Viking pipeline compression electrification project. The Oklahoma storage expansion and Viking project are both slated for completion this year.
Additionally, in late December 2022, a ONEOK subsidiary filed a presidential permit application with the FERC to construct and operate new international border crossing facilities at the U.S. and Mexico border. The proposed border facilities would connect upstream with a potential ONEOK intrastate natural gas pipeline called the Swaro Connector pipeline and with a new pipeline under development in Mexico for ultimate delivery to an export facility on the West Coast of Mexico. Since the announcement, there have been several positive developments related to the potential LNG export project. And a final investment decision on the ONEOK pipeline is expected in mid-2023.
Pearce, that concludes my remarks.
