Oil Pipeline Project to Remain Stalled at Missouri River
24 August 2016 - 2:30AM
Dow Jones News
Construction on a 1,154-mile pipeline that would carry oil from
North Dakota to Illinois will remain halted at a site near the
Missouri River, after a federal judge postponed a hearing to
determine whether protesters should be prevented from accessing the
site.
Tensions between the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which opposes
the pipeline, and local police have escalated in recent weeks. More
than two dozen protesters have been arrested after they blocked
entry to the site 34 miles south of Mandan, N.D. The pipeline's
developer, Dakota Access LLP, filed a lawsuit last week seeking to
block protesters from the site.
Dakota Access is being built by Energy Transfer Partners LP and
its affiliate, Sunoco Logistics Partners LP. Phillips 66, the
refiner, owns a 25% stake. Enbridge Energy Partners LP and Marathon
Petroleum Corp., bought a stake in the Dakota Access line for $2
billion earlier this month.
Judge Daniel Hovland of U.S. District Court for the District of
North Dakota pushed a hearing to decide whether to grant a
preliminary injunction sought by the company to Sept. 8 from this
Thursday. Meanwhile, he agreed to extend a temporary restraining
order against the tribe's chairman Dave Archambault II and others
who have protested the pipeline.
"The parties are strongly encouraged to meet and confer in good
faith in an attempt to resolve this dispute prior to the hearing,"
the judge wrote in part.
On Tuesday, a coalition of Native American groups that oppose
the pipeline sent out an appeal to human rights groups to come to
the North Dakota site, calling the situation a crisis.
"We are committed to peaceful defense of our water and our
territory," the groups said.
A spokeswoman for Energy Transfer Partners couldn't immediately
be reached to comment Tuesday. The company has said construction
continues at other points along the pipeline.
The Standing Rock Sioux argue that the pipeline threatens sacred
sites and poses a risk to the tribe's drinking-water supply, since
they say the pipeline would cross the Missouri River just upstream
from the reservation.
The $3.7 billion pipeline is scheduled to be completed by the
end of the year and would be a major conduit for crude oil from
North Dakota's Bakken Shale formation, carrying as much as 470,000
barrels of oil a day or more.
Write to Kris Maher at kris.maher@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 23, 2016 12:15 ET (16:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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