CALGARY, Alberta, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- There's enough commercial interest to support the use of a 75-mile pipeline planned through part of the Bakken oil field in southern Canada, regulators said.
Canada's National Energy Board said it approved plans submitted by Enbridge Bakken Pipeline Co. to build a pipeline in Saskatchewan and Manitoba provinces.
The NEB said it found there was enough commercial interest to support the new 75-mile pipeline in Canada.
"The Bakken Pipeline would connect to the Enbridge Pipelines Inc. mainline and would serve as a continuous, long-term source of supply to eastern Canadian and U.S. Midwest markets, thus maintaining the long-term competitiveness of refineries in those regions," the NEB said in a statement.
The pipeline plans include a pump station to deliver crude oil from the Bakken and Three Forks formations that cross the U.S.-Canadian border. The pipeline wouldn't cross international borders, however.
Enbridge this month said it planned to expand its capacity into the Berthold terminal in North Dakota by 80,000 barrels of oil per day. This includes a railcar loading terminal to handle the additional volume.
That expansion will accommodate growing production from Bakken and Three Forks crude oil formations in the northern United States and southern Canada, the company said.
The U.S. Geological Survey in 2008 estimated there were 3 billion-4.3 billion barrels of oil in the U.S. part of the Bakken formation.
