Panel: Pipeline may help stop jam
Janell Cole, Forum Communications Co.
http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=170417§ion=News&forumc...
Published Saturday, June 30, 2007
BISMARCK – The North Dakota Industrial Commission is urging construction of the TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, saying it has the potential to alleviate an international pipeline bottleneck that hurts the sale of North Dakota crude oil.
The Industrial Commission, which also acts as the state Pipeline Authority, endorsed a letter the authority’s director sent this week to the North Dakota Public Service Commission. The PSC will decide if the pipeline should cross the state and where it should be placed.
The pipeline is planned to cross the state from north to south, entering near Walhalla and exiting near Oakes. There will be five pumping stations along the route. It will carry Canadian crude oil mined from the tar sands in northern Alberta.
Mark Makelky, Pipeline Authority director, said Keystone asked the Industrial Commission for the letter some time ago. Its timing this week, a few days after the Dakota Resource Council asked for a hearing on whether the pipeline is necessary, is a coincidence, Makelky said. He was not aware of DRC’s hearing request.
The letter says the pipeline, which will initially carry 435,000 barrels a day of crude oil, could aid North Dakota’s oil fields a couple of ways.
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First, having a new pipeline for the Canadian oil could take some of the demand off oil pipelines running between Canada and Colorado, which some North Dakota wells use. In the past couple of years, North Dakota’s oil has been discounted because a pipeline capacity bottleneck makes it harder to get it to market.
If more Canadian oil goes through Keystone instead of pipelines to Colorado, that could mean more room for North Dakota oil, Makelky said.
The Industrial Commission is made up of Gov. John Hoeven, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem and Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson.
Cole works for Forum Communications Co., which owns The Forum. She can be reached at (701) 224-0830 or forumcap@btinet.net
