Bakken oil pipeline shelved

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TULSA, Okla., Nov. 28 (UPI) -- An Oklahoma energy company said there wasn't enough interest to move ahead with a planned 1,300-mile oil pipeline from the Bakken oil pay.

In April, Oklahoma natural gas company Oneok Partners announced plans to get into crude oil delivery business by unveiling plans for a pipeline from the Bakken formation in the northern Plains states to the Cushing, Okla., market hub.

The project would've carried as much as 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Oneok President Terry Spencer said the project was shelved, however, because of lack of interest.

"Despite the robust outlook for crude-oil supply growth in the Williston Basin in the Bakken Shale, we did not receive sufficient long-term commitments under the terms we needed to construct the Bakken Crude Express Pipeline," he said in a statement.

He maintained, however, that his company was in good financial shape with more than $4 billion worth of projects under way in the Bakken formation.

Spencer's announcement follows a declaration from Canadian energy company Enbridge that rail deliveries from the Bakken play may be "the fastest way" to get around regional bottlenecks in crude oil transportation.

Enbridge said it was committed to a $68 million rail system near Philadelphia that can handle up to 80,000 barrels of oil per day from the Bakken play.

The Association of American Railroad said, for last week, U.S. petroleum deliveries by rail were up 54.2 percent compared with the same time last year.