Oil Starts Flowing Through the Dakota Access Pipeline

Just four months after President Trump gave the Dakota Access pipeline the green light, oil is flowing through the controversial piece of oil infrastructure. The WSJ reports:

The Dakota Access Pipeline is part of a system that transports oil from the Bakken and Three Forks production areas in North Dakota to a storage hub outside Patoka, Ill., and later to terminals in Nederland, Texas. […]

Energy Transfer Partners LP, one of the pipeline’s owners, said the $3.8 billion pipeline spans nearly 1,180 miles and can transport as much as 470,000 barrels of oil daily.

Ramping up the amount of oil that can flow through the pipeline will take time, according to ESAI Energy, a consulting firm that has tracked the progress of the project. The pipeline is expected to hit 75% of its capacity by the end of the year.

The Dakota Access is an important piece of pipeline infrastructure that will help alleviate bottlenecks in America’s oil supply chain. The U.S. has the world’s largest network of pipelines, but much of our new oil production (courtesy of the shale boom) is underserved by existing pipes. The shale boom came on so quickly that we’re still playing catch up in connecting shale formations in remote parts of the country (in this case, in the Bakken shale fields of North Dakota). Dakota Access will help producers get their product to market in a safer, cheaper manner.

But the project isn’t without controversy. It has come under fire both for the fact that it’s further enabling fossil fuels (a complaint greens have also levied at the Keystone XL pipeline), but also because of its potential impact on the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. The former gripe is a spurious one—this pipeline, just like Keystone, won’t make or break oil projects by itself, so its impact on net greenhouse emissions is negligible. In fact, it’s actually safer for the environment to ship this crude by pipe, rather than by rail or truck, as many producers have been relying on lately.

The Standing Rock Sioux challenge makes the Dakota Access distinct from Keystone, and those concerns can’t be dismissed as easily. The tribe’s reservation lies just downstream of the pipeline, and there’s a lot of concern that it might leak and pollute drinking water and sacred land. The Standing Rock Sioux are challenging the project in court, and their case is ongoing at this point. The outcome of that case will have major implications on the project, and it’s one we’ll be keeping an eye on going forward.

At this point, though, the crude is flowing, and Trump can point to the speed at which this project was finalized as evidence of his commitment to helping America’s oil and gas industry.