New Bakken Pipeline Proposed -- ETP -- Bakken To Texas Coast

Updates

March 24, 2015: ETP, Bakken-to-Illinois, Dakota Access Pipeline, miles of pipeline being brought in, stored near Aberdeen, SD; South Dakota state has until December 15, 2015, to make decision.

August 30, 2014: Iowa activists trying to stop the ETP pipeline. 
 

Original Post

Reuters is reporting:

Energy Transfer Partners on Friday announced plans to build an oil pipeline from the Bakken shale in North Dakota to U.S. Midwest and Gulf Coast refineries, seeking support for a major new conduit even after rivals dropped similar plans.

Dallas-based ETP said it will launch a so-called open season on March 12 to assess market interest in the project, and said one of the pipeline's destinations will be Sunoco Logistics Partners LP's Nederland, Texas terminal.

A spokeswoman for ETP declined to provide any further details on the project, including what capacity the pipeline might have or when the open season would conclude.

ETP has also been working to develop another major north-south conduit by converting a 30-inch (76-cm) existing natural gas line, known as Trunkline, to ship up to 420,000 barrels-per-day Bakken and Canadian crude from Patoka, Illinois to Nederland.

Don sent me the link. My two cents worth:

Lots of "competition" between rail and pipeline -- it seems folks are trying to sort this out.

I think most folks realize that rail cannot be the permanent answer, but yet, pipeline may not be the preferred choice for some years. Perhaps ETP "knows" that it will take many years to get the pipeline approved, laid, so might as well start now.