BISMARCK - Enterprise Products Partners LP said on Tuesday it will build a 1,200-mile pipeline from North Dakota's Bakken oil fields to Cushing, Oklahoma.
The pipeline, Enterprise's first in North Dakota, would help transport more of the state's crude oil to Cushing, a key gathering and distribution hub for oil produced around the United States. The pipeline would originate in Stanley, North Dakota, and be 30 inches in diameter. It will have a daily capacity of 340,000 barrels of oil and should be online by the end of 2016, said Brent Secrest, vice president of onshore crude oil, pipelines and terminals for Enterprise.
"Our business right now is focused on Texas and Oklahoma," Secrest said when announcing the project at a pipeline summit hosted by North Dakota's governor in the state capital. "The goal is we go further north."
Shares of Enterprise hit an all-time high of $77.06 on the news in Tuesday trading.
Enterprise expects to ship Bakken condensate to the U.S. Gulf Coast from Cushing, but believes not all of the Bakken oil will follow as the oil it transports replenishes Cushing reserves, Secrest said.
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For the week ended June 6, crude oil stocks in Cushing fell to a six-year low as oil moved quickly to refining hub on the Gulf Coast. Oil traders say this new Enterprise pipeline will add to stocks in Cushing.
