North Dakota Requires More Monitoring of Massive Oil Pipeline







Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners will have to cough up another $100,000 to pay for an independent review of its construction of the biggest-capacity pipeline proposed to move crude from North Dakota’s oil patch. The state Emergency Commission voted recently to charge the company to cover the cost of the third-party monitoring for the proposed $3.8 billion, 1,130 mile-long Dakota Access Pipeline.

Once completed, the pipeline will move nearly 600,000 barrels of crude a day from North Dakota to Illinois. The pipeline capacity represents nearly half of the state’s current production. Just the North Dakota stretch of the pipeline will carry a cost of $1.4 billion. Energy Transfer says it expects to obtain all of the construction permits in the four involved states by the end of 2016.

The $100,000 additional fee will cover the state’s monitoring of construction as well as removal, replacement and reseeding of the soil. The monitoring fees required by North Dakota have existed since 2008 but this is the first time the monitoring fee has gone beyond just $100,000. State leaders say they will make the same request of Enbridge Energy as it builds its proposed $2.6 billion Sandpiper pipeline to carry oil from North Dakota to Superior, Wisconsin.