Company applies to build pipeline from North Dakota

Fuel Fix ^ | November 5, 2013 | Associated Press

[thackney]

A Canadian company has applied to build the largest oil pipeline yet from western North Dakota’s booming oil patch and will soon begin courting oil producers to reserve space, a key step in a $2.6 billion project that would move millions of gallons of oil to Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge Energy is proposing the 612-mile Sandpiper pipeline to each day carry 225,000 barrels of oil to a hub in northern Minnesota and 375,000 barrels to one in northwestern Wisconsin. If approved by regulators, it would be the largest pipeline moving oil out of North Dakota, the nation’s second-leading producer of oil behind Texas.

North Dakota has more than doubled its oil production in the past two years, closing in on a million barrels of oil a day. But due to the lack of pipeline capacity in the state, about 61 percent of the state’s daily oil production is being shipped by rail. A barrel is equivalent to 42 gallons. Enbridge’s application to regulators argues that the project is “needed and in the public interest.”

The company submitted the application last week to the North Dakota Public Service Commission and will take similar steps with regulators in Minnesota and Wisconsin in the next month, company spokeswoman Katie Haarsager said.

But she noted that soliciting and securing shipping contracts, during a process called “open season,” is as vital as obtaining permits for the project.

“The open season is very important and allows us to ensure that we have shippers’ interest in the project. A successful open season means we should have a successful project,” she said Tuesday.

[thackney]

excerpted for AP content

[thackney]

Sandpiper Project
http://www.enbridge.com/SandpiperProject/Project-Overview.aspx

Planning, design, landowner outreach and permitting – 2013 to late-2014

Construction – late-2014 to 2016

Restoration – 2016 until complete

In-service – 2016

[South Dakota]

Stanley ND. The hub of everything in this neck of prairie. I live 14 miles east

[rktman]

s/. Well, someone needs to put a stop to that. What about all those snail darters and sage grouse and jumping mice and one winged moths. It’s just not right. Not to mention the inevitable trillion gallon spills that will occur every month or two. Are they gonna use wind/solar powered pumps to move the product?