Huge Headline Story In Today's WSJ: Continental Resources

Continental strikes side deal with founder Harold Hamm. (As usual, I round some numbers in all my posts.)

The Double H pipeline.  CLR committing $100 million. The pipeline cost: $300 million.
The pipeline deal comes as some investors have become increasingly wary of close ties between energy companies and their executives. Earlier this year, Chesapeake Energy Corp.'s co-founder and chief executive, Aubrey McClendon, left the company after disclosures that he had borrowed $1.4 billion from a private-equity firm while selling corporate assets to the same firm. An internal probe of these financial dealings cleared Mr. McClendon of any "intentional misconduct." 

And further down:

Continental wants to have many different ways—including railroads as well as pipelines—to ship the crude it produces in North Dakota to refineries across North America, he said. Committing to the Hiland Partners pipeline, known as the Double H, will help ensure the company can move oil south to the Houston region's enormous concentration of refineries, Mr. Hume said.

The $300 million pipeline, which Hiland says will be operational by August 2014, will take crude from the booming North Dakota oil fields about 450 miles to Guernsey, Wyo. There it will connect with the planned Pony Express Pipeline to carry crude 690 miles to Cushing, Okla., a major market hub with connections to Gulf Coast refineries.

Continental has reserved space on the Double H to ship 10,000 barrels of crude a day for five years, about one-fifth of the northern leg of the pipeline's total capacity. Continental's commitment helped Hiland amass enough agreements from oil producers to move ahead with the project, even as competing pipelines were abandoned.

The MDW tracks pipelines of interest here.