Pipelines in the Bakken? The Story is Just Beginning

Link to the Dickinson Press.

The story is about the frustration, irritation, patience, relationships, etc., with regard to all the pipeline that is being laid in the Bakken.

But when you get past the human interest part of the story here are the data points and quotes:

In North Dakota, 74 percent of crude oil is gathered by truck and 26 percent gathered by pipeline, according to Kringstad. For Williams County, the ratio is 95 percent truck and 5 percent pipeline.

“That’s not sustainable,” said Lynn Helms, director of the Department of Mineral Resources. “That’s not a paradigm that we can live with long-term.”

But the process to obtain easements for pipeline projects is taking longer and becoming more expensive, Helms said.

The price to obtain an easement used to be about $25 per rod, or 16-1/2 feet, but now the price can be as high as $135 per rod, Dukart said.

The prices have risen similarly in Williams County, with landowners typically not accepting less than $100 a rod, Jorgenson said.

Five years of explosive growth in the Bakken and 95 percent of Williams County production is still "gathered" by trucks. I don't even know where to begin: there are so many story lines one could explore. 

Surface Owners and Offers for Pipeline Easements

Updates

September 29, 2012: Elsewhere a reader says he is being offered $150/rod for a 100-foot easement. Not surprising, he's not getting much help. At least not yet.

Original Post

The following was sent in as a comment. I have no experience in the subject and since most folks may not read the comments, I am posting the query as a stand-alone post:

As a landowner from out of state, the pipeline is to go through our land. We have been offered $75/rod but this seems little as compared to my online research as to what people have received in other states. Are others being offered the same amount? 

Please feel free to let folks know what you've been offered. It may depend on location, diameter of pipe, what the pipe will be carrying, etc., so it might help to provide specific information.