Bakken Pipeline News Roundup

new 5/14/2013 Paradigm Midstream, a Dallas-based company, today announced the planned construction of a new 12-inch multi-market pipeline in the Bakken Shale.  Permitting is underway and construction is scheduled to begin in late 2013, with the pipeline expected to come on line in 2014, adding up to 120,000 barrels per day of crude oil take-away capacity from McKenzie County. The route for the initial pipeline will run from Johnson's Corner, located in McKenzie County, and tie into the Pioneer crude oil transloading facility owned by Dakota Plains Holdings and its partner located in south Mountrail County in New Town, North Dakota. The pipeline will then run from the Pioneer facility to Enbridge's Stanley Station located in north Mountrail County, where commercial agreements are being finalized to tie into Enbridge's North Dakota pipeline system at Stanley, which connects to Enbridge's Berthold Rail facility and additional pipeline capacity downstream of Berthold, North Dakota. Read more

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3/4/2013 Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P. and Enbridge Income Fund announced today that the Bakken Pipeline Expansion Project, part of Enbridge's Bakken Expansion Program, is now complete and in service. The Project reversed and expanded an existing pipeline, running from Berthold, North Dakota, to Steelman, Saskatchewan, and constructed a new 16-inch pipeline from a new terminal near Steelman to the Enbridge Pipelines Inc. mainline terminal near Cromer, Manitoba. The Project provides 145,000 barrels per day (bpd) of capacity for growing production from the Bakken and Three Forks formations located in Montana, North Dakota, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, of which 25,000 bpd was placed in service during the first quarter of 2012. Once on the Enbridge mainline, Bakken production will have access to the multiple markets accessible from the mainline and connected pipeline systems. Firm commitments totaling 100,000 bpd have been received from anchor shippers.

3/26/2013 Global Partners LP today announced it has executed a pipeline connection agreement with Tesoro Logistics whereby Tesoro Logistics' High Plains Pipeline System will build, own and operate a new seven-mile pipeline lateral from its Lignite, ND crude oil station to Global's 100,000 barrel crude oil storage tank at the Basin Transload facility in Columbus, ND. Crude oil is expected to begin flowing to the new Columbus-bound branch in the third quarter of 2013, enhancing the movement of crude from the mid-continent to Global’s destination assets on the East Coast. Read more

3/26/2013 The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected the rate plan for the $2.2 billion Enbridge Sandpiper pipeline that would carry Bakken oil from western North Dakota to Superior, Wis. where it would be transported on existing pipelines to refinery hubs in the United States and eastern Canada. Enbridge had applied to FERC for authorization to add a surcharge to the existing rate for transporting oil as a way to recover construction costs. FERC's ruling sided with refiners who argued that the surcharge would have improperly shifted the risks related to the project away from the pipeline owner. FERC concluded its ruling by encouraging Enbridge to submit a new rate plan, which Enbridge has indicated it is going to do. More

4/5/2013 Oklahoma-based Hiland Partners reportedly is planning to build a pipeline from Dore, N.D. in McKenzie County to Guemsey, Wyo. At Guernsey, the new pipeline  would connect with Tallgrass Energy's Pony Express Pipeline to carry the crude to the Cushing, Okla. The 12-inch pipeline would have an initial capacity of 50,000 barrels per day but could be expanded to nearly 100,000 barrels. The 450-mile project would cost approximately $300 million. Construction is expected to begin thus summer and be completed by the third quarter of 2014. Read more

4/9/2013  ONEOK Partners, L.P. announces the completion of the Bakken NGL Pipeline, a 600-mile facility with the capacity to transport 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) of unfractionated NGLs from ONEOK Partners' natural gas processing plants and from third-party natural gas processing plants in the Williston Basin to an interconnection with the partnership's 50 percent-owned Overland Pass Pipeline in northern Colorado.  The NGL volumes are then delivered to ONEOK Partners' Mid-Continent NGL fractionation and storage facilities in central Kansas. In July 2012, the partnership announced plans to invest approximately $100 million to install additional pump stations on the Bakken NGL Pipeline, which will increase its capacity to 135,000 bpd from 60,000 bpd.  This expansion is expected to be completed in the third quarter 2014. Read more

4/9/2013 CenterPoint Energy Bakken Crude Services LLC (CEBCS), an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of CenterPoint Energy Inc., announced it has entered into a long-term agreement with XTO Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corp., to gather XTO’s crude oil production through a new crude oil gathering and transportation pipeline system in North Dakota’s liquids-rich Bakken shale. The agreement with XTO is the first agreement entered into pursuant to the open season announced by CEBCS on Feb. 19.

Under the terms of this new agreement, which includes volume commitments, CEBCS will provide service to XTO over a gathering system to be constructed in Dunn and McKenzie counties, North Dakota. The gathering system will have a capacity of up to 19,500 barrels per day (bpd). Read more