Marathon To Be Main Shipper On Enbridge's Sandpiper

This story is being reported at many sources. This one is from Reuters:

Enbridge Inc said on Monday that Marathon Petroleum Corp agreed to take a stake and become the main shipper on the company's $2.6 billion Sandpiper pipeline project, which will take crude oil from North Dakota's Bakken field to U.S. refiners.

Enbridge, Canada's largest pipeline company, said in a release that Marathon will pay 37.5 percent of Sandpiper's cost in exchange for a 27 percent interest in the company's North Dakota system.

From the Fargo Forum:

The North Dakota Public Service Commission, a three-member panel that oversees utility projects, said the pipeline is the biggest project yet to move oil from the rich Bakken and Three Forks formations in the western part of the state.

North Dakota has more than doubled its oil production in the past two years, closing in on a million barrels of oil a day. But due to the lack of pipeline capacity in the state, about 61 percent of the state’s daily oil production is being shipped by rail.

Enbridge operates about 50,000 miles of pipelines in North America, and several hundred miles of pipelines in North Dakota, including one that runs between Minot, N.D., and Clearbrook, Minn. The line, built in 1962, has the capacity to ship 210,000 barrels of North Dakota crude daily, or about 8.8 million gallons.