Oil pipeline reversal good for Oklahoma

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OKLAHOMA CITY, May 4 (UPI) -- Reversing the Seaway oil pipeline will be good for the state of Oklahoma and unstop a bottleneck at a key storage hub, a state authority said.

Canadian pipeline company Enbridge and Enterprise Products Partners are in the final stages of reversing the flow of the Seaway oil pipeline. The companies in November agreed to reverse the direction of crude oil on the pipeline so it can carry oil from the trading hub in Cushing, Okla., to refineries along the southern coast of the United States.

Mike Terry, president of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, said getting crude out of Cushing and into refineries meant good things for the state. He said keeping oil in storage at the Cushing hub can be expensive.

"If Oklahoma oil is selling on average for $15 per barrel less than crude oil from other parts of the globe, the price differential costs Oklahoma oil producers and royalty owners approximately $2.5 million per day," he told The Oklahoman newspaper. "In one year, the state would lose $63 million in gross production taxes."

Officials at Enterprise said they were on schedule to start the reversal as early as May 17.