U.S. energy company Hess Corp. said Wednesday it filed the paperwork for an initial public offering it said could help advance its Bakken crude oil ambitions.

Hess Corp. said its subsidiary, Hess Midstream Partners, filed a statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission related to its proposed initial public offering.

"The offering is expected to occur in the first quarter of 2015," the company said in a statement.

Hess said it intends to use the master limited partnership as the primary vehicle to support its Bakken production growth.

The company in January said it plans to spend $2.85 billion of the $5.8 billion budgeted this year for exploration and production on exploiting shale reserves, mostly in North Dakota.

Oil production from the Bakken and Three Forks area of North Dakota topped the 1 million barrel per day mark for the first time this year.

There isn't enough pipeline capacity in the state to handle the amount of oil produced, which energy companies say leaves rail as the primary transit alternative.

Exploration and production accounts for the upstream sector in energy, while downstream includes refining operations. Midstream typically refers to the means of getting energy reserves to refineries using transit options like pipelines or rail.