Epping Transco reach agreement on new crude oil pipeline

Epping Transco announced today that it has reached an agreement with North Dakota Pipeline Company LLC, an affiliate of Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P., on a new crude oil interconnect agreement pursuant to which Epping Transco will interconnect with and deliver certain of the crude oil gathered on Meadowlark's Polar and Divide systems into Enbridge's North Dakota System (the Little Muddy Interconnect). The Little Muddy Interconnect will provide customers on the Polar and Divide systems with increased optionality in accessing downstream markets with up to 55 000 bpd of incremental pipeline throughput capacity.

In connection with the Little Muddy Interconnect and the Basin Transload interconnect announced in June 2014, Meadowlark will expand its Epping Crude Oil Storage Facility and Divide Crude Oil Storage Facility, to offer additional crude oil storage services to its customers. Epping Storage will receive crude oil from the Polar and Divide systems and will also include a truck unloading rack. Divide Storage will receive crude oil from the Divide System and will also include a multi-bay truck unloading rack. Epping Storage and Divide Storage will each have 75 000 bbls of crude oil storage capacity, initially, and both facilities will have the ability to accommodate additional crude oil storage tanks for future potential expansions.

Both facilities are expected to be in service in the Q3 of 2015. Customers of Epping Storage will have the option to access the COLT Hub rail terminal or Enbridge's North Dakota Pipeline System. Customers of Divide Storage will have the option to access the COLT Hub rail terminal, Basin Transload's Columbus rail terminal, or Enbridge's North Dakota System (through Epping Storage).

Steve Newby, President and Chief Executive Officer of Summit Investments commented, "Our commercial team continues to find ways to enhance both the operating capability of our Bakken crude oil gathering systems and our service offerings for our customers. With today's announcement, we add another delivery outlet for our Bakken customers to utilise, which provides them with improved reliability and greater flexibility to access the most favourable crude oil markets and optimise returns."

"I am also excited to announce that we are enhancing our service offering in the basin by developing new crude oil storage capacity at our Epping and Divide locations. These projects add another level of service that we can offer to our customers to facilitate their drilling programmes, provide storage capacity, and ensure access to multiple crude oil markets."

Adapted from press release by Hannah Priestley-Eaton

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/30072014/epping-transco-reach-agreement-on-new-crude-oil-pipeline/