Has nothing to do with lack of refiners' interest and lawsuits on a competitors line, Transcanda.
From AP:
TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A proposed $1.8 billion oil pipeline from North Dakota to Oklahoma has been called off because the company behind the deal couldn't rally enough commitments to transport their oil to Cushing.
Tulsa-based Oneok Partners LP announced Tuesday that the Bakken Crude Express Pipeline won't be built.
Oneok says the outlook for crude oil supply is robust but it could not get enough producers to
promise long-term use of the 1,300-mile pipeline.
From Bloomburg:
Oneok Partners LP (OKS), which is controlled by Oneok Inc., wasn’t able to sign up enough oil producers to justify building the Bakken Crude Express pipeline, President Terry Spencer said in a statement yesterday. The 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer) pipeline would have given Oneok a toehold in the lucrative oil transportation business in Montana and North Dakota. The company already is one of the region’s largest natural gas processors.
An “abundance of rail,” which allows producers to ship oil to higher-priced markets on the East Coast, probably made the project unviable, according to a research note from Tudor Pickering Holt & Co.
End of article.
The reason is the oil producers don't want to lock themselves long term to send more oil to Cushing where it is already overflowing and at a huge discount. They are finding ways to transport via railroad to East Coast, West Coast and Gulf Coast.
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