Enbridge Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: EEP) announced today it will invest $145 million to expand North Dakota’s crude oil system.
Enbridge’s investment will add a rail car loading area, and increase the holding capacity at the Berthold terminal by 80,000 barrels a day, says the Associated Press. This is set to follow a 10,000 barrel per day start-up in July of next year, the 80,000 barrels per day capacity plans to be in service by early 2013.
“Our Berthold Rail Project complements a series of expansions Enbridge has undertaken to expand transport capacity from North Dakota. It integrates high quality Bakken crude into Enbridge’s expanding portfolio of pipeline projects that access premium markets across the United States,” said Mark Maki, President of the Partnership, reports Market Watch. “Importantly, it allows producers and shippers the ability to continue to grow their business while Enbridge develops the next phase of pipeline expansions on the Enbridge North Dakota System.”
The expansion will add to Enbridge’s ongoing efforts to support the increased oil production in the region. The Bakken Expansion Program was announced in 2010 with the goal to increase the company’s transport capacity by an additional 145,000 barrels or oil per day from oil fields in Montana, North Dakota and southeast Saskatchewan.
In October Enbridge announced “…it would spend $90 million to increase pipeline capacity at the Bakken oil shale formation in North Dakota. In September, it agreed to help build a Texas pipeline for natural gas liquids jointly with Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD) and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC),” reports The Wall Street Journal.
That’s all for now,
Cori
