Update On The Second Largest (?) Pipeline In The Bakken -- September 21, 2021

I track the Tesoro High Plains pipeline story here. 

I can't say for sure if this is the second largest pipeline in the Bakken but certainly the DAPL is number one. The Tesoro High Plains carries about a third of all Bakken oil which suggests it must be the second largest pipeline. But I could be wrong.  

I'm not following this case very closely; if it's important to you go to the source. The blog often has content and typographical errors.

I can't recall if I posted this update, from The Williston Herald, about six days ago, updated by the Herald on September 20:

The legal battle will continue for Andeavor’s Tesoro High Plains crude oil system for the foreseeable future, after the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision dismissing a class action suit filed by landowners over claims of trespass.

The High Plains system carries about one-third of the Bakken’s crude oil to a refinery in Mandan, and it has been embroiled in a legal quagmire since 2013, when negotiations to renew its right of way leases fell apart.

On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision in the 2018 class action suit, which seeks both compensatory and punitive damages for ongoing trespass and injunctive relief requiring the pipeline to be dismantled.

The Eighth Circuit agreed that the outcome of the Bureau of Indian Affairs administrative process would be an important turning point for the case, but disagreed that it lacked jurisdiction until after that administrative process is completely exhausted, especially given the back and forth in the Bureau’s decisions with new administrations coming on board. Instead of a dismissal, they granted a stay, to give the BIA more time to finish its current administrative process under the Biden administration. It also remanded the case back to the lower court for further consideration in light of its ruling.

Individual landowners control 66 of the 90 acres in question for the pipeline’s right of way, and the MHA Nation controls 24. The individual landowners rejected their offers after learning that MHA Nation had been offered substantially more per acre than they had been. They filed suit to try and force the pipeline to pay them more per acre or sun down.

Marathon had partially shut the system down in 2020, after an order from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, amid claims that the pipeline has been trespassing on Native American land for seven years. Marathon was also fined $187 million in damages in connection with the BIA order under the Obama administration. The Trump administration later reduced that to $4 million.

More at the link.