TransCanada To Ship Bakken Oil to Gulf of Mexico -- $140 Million Project -- North Dakota

Link  here. Link will be broken shortly; regional newspaper.

• Contracts for 65,000 bopd.
• Through proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
• Bakken sweet oil to be segregated from heavy sands oil.

TransCanada has been under intense pressure to put in a pipeline link between the Bakken pipeline system and TransCanada. After a bit of public wrangling, TransCanada agreed to put in the link ... drum roll ... yes, a five-mile, repeat, five-mile link with Bakken Marketline which will meet up with the Keystone XL pipeline near Baker, Montana.

The five-mile long Bakken Marketlink pipeline would meet with the Keystone XL pipeline in Baker, Montana, said Paul Miller, TransCanada's senior vice president of oil pipelines. The $140 million project would rely on so-called feeder pipelines proposed by other companies to move North Dakota and Montana crude to the facility in Baker, Miller said.

$140 million for five miles?

The Keystone XL project has not yet received approval from the US; that approval is expected by mid-year (2011) according to TransCanada.

65,000 bopd is a significant amount of capacity; current capacity is around 400,000 bopd depending how and what is measured. Railroad shipments are scalable.

The segregation of sweet oil from heavy sands oil is very significant.

By the way, I was wrong on this issue.  I was irritated that Governor Schweitzer threatened to hold up this project over this issue. I won't go through that discussion again; I am thrilled it has worked out the way it has.