Enbridge Sandpiper Pipeline Dead? -- February 18, 2016

Updates

 February 21, 2016: The Park Rapids Enterprise has the same story, that the project will be delayed to 2019.

The company originally planned for startup early this year, then pushed it to 2017 after Minnesota regulators ordered a state environmental review that would examine alternate routes for that state's portion of the project.

U.S. refiner Marathon Petroleum Corp in 2013 agreed to pay 37.5 percent of Sandpiper's construction costs in exchange for a 27 percent interest in Enbridge's North Dakota pipeline system.

The Line 3 replacement involves swapping 1,031 miles of 34-inch pipeline with new 36-inch pipeline that would push capacity to 760,000 bpd from an average of 390,000 bpd. The North Dakota-Minnesota-Wisconsin portion of the $7.5 billion that connects Edmonton, Alberta, to Superior, Wis. was estimated to be $2.6 billion.

Enbridge said Minnesota regulators require that final environmental reviews be finished for each project before the company can move on to seek other permits.

Perhaps CBR is not dead as RBN Energy suggests.

Original Post 

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting that the Enbridge Sandpiper Pipeline has hit a sandbar:

Another delay on the time table of two oil pipeline projects in northern Minnesota has opponents of the projects declaring victory.

Enbridge Energy, the company behind the proposed Sandpiper and Line 3 projects, announced this week both pipelines won’t be ready until early 2019.

December’s decision by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to require a fully completed environmental impact statement to be done by state agencies before either project gets approved is likely to drive the cost of both projects higher, according to an Enbridge press release. Spokeswoman Lorraine Little confirmed costs were likely to rise, although the release nor she were able to state exactly what the new price tags would be.

The Sandpiper project was originally scheduled to come online this spring. The 616-mile pipeline from the North Dakota Oil Patch to Superior, WI, and was expected to cost $2.6 billion. The Line 3 replacement would run from northern Alberta to Superior.

The 1,031-mile project was estimated to cost $7.5 billion, with the American portion costing $2.6 billion.

In the big scheme of things, the Sandpiper is no longer needed.

This is how the Keystone XL was killed.

And this is not good news for the Dakota Access Pipeline which is likely to face a similar outcome in Iowa. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to think that the Iowa regulators aren't looking at what the Minnesota regulators just did.