Enbridge Oil Pipeline Project on Hold in Minnesota

enbridgeSandpiper

With the announcement by Enbridge Energy it will invest in a different pipeline to move North Dakota crude oil but not across Minnesota, questions remain about the proposed oil pipeline through the northern reaches of the state.

Enbridge, based in Canada had proposed the $2.6 billion Sandpiper pipeline to cross Minnesota and carry Bakken oil to a terminal in Superior, Wisconsin. Now the company, in partnership with Houston-based Marathon Petroleum is focusing on a plan to buy part of the Bakken Pipeline project to transport oil from North Dakota across the Midwest to Texas.

Enbridge executives say once the Midwest pipeline project is finished, then they will consider what to do with the Sandpiper project. The company already has delayed the Sandpiper to 2019 after the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission ordered a full environmental impact review of the pipeline. Enbridge blamed the state’s regulatory process for delaying Sandpiper as well as another pipeline which was meant to be a replacement to carry Canadian crude oil also across northern Minnesota.