Dakota Access Oil Pipeline Clears Hurdle To Doubling Capacity

Illinois approved this week the plan for the Dakota Access Pipeline to double its capacity from 570,000 bpd to 1.1 million bpd, thus becoming the last state along the pipeline's route to give its consent to the expansion.

Dakota Access, which has seen a lot of controversy since its inception and initial start-up in 2017, now has the approval of all four states through which it passes-North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois-to expand its capacity.

While the approval of the Illinois Commerce Commission is seen as a win for the oil industry, the pipeline's operator Energy Transfer, and the North Dakota oil producers, environmentalists see the expansion of the pipeline - whose operation they still oppose - as unnecessary with the decreased oil demand in the coronavirus pandemic.

"This vital project will bring an additional half a million barrels a day of domestic energy from North Dakota that will be used to fuel our farms, communities and lives in Illinois and across the Midwest. It's critical we continue to support and expand our nation's pipeline infrastructure like DAPL to help family budgets and keep our economy moving - especially in this time of recovery from COVID-19," Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) Midwest Director Chris Ventura said in a statement, welcoming the decision.

"It's wildly inappropriate to be talking about expansion when the real conversation is about shutting it down," Jan Hasselman, an attorney for EarthJustice who represents the Standing Rock Tribe against DAPL in the federal lawsuit, told Grand Forks Herald.

In this separate case, DAPL and Energy Transfer are fighting a legal battle after a judge vacated the permit for the pipeline in July, and then a U.S. Appeals Court ruled that Dakota Access can continue to operate while the court considers whether the pipeline should be shut down as ordered by a lower court's ruling. The pipeline will continue operating at least until the end of 2020 as December 2020 is the earliest time the court will be able to make a decision after reviewing all relevant documentation.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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