Energy Insider | Video

Kevin Boughton | 10/7/2011

More oil is coming out of Western North Dakota than ever before, 113 million barrels of North Dakota sweet crude came to the surface in 2010. Through July, 2011, producers have pumped 78 million barrels. All that oil has to get to markets and refineries that are, at best, hundreds, but most often, thousands of miles away.

Energy Insider talks with one oil transporter with big plans for the Bakken.

Since purchasing Portal Pipeline for $25 million, Enbridge has spent almost 400 times that amount with $1 billion, expanding its operation. It`s the tremendous oil production of today, and also future projections that have prompted the Canada-based company to start construction to increase its pipeline capacity by 145,000 barrels per day by the beginning of 2013.

Enbridge North Dakota General Manager Mike Moeller says much of that space is already spoken for. He says consistent communication with customers allows Enbridge to keep tabs on the market.

"Enbridge has an internal forecast model that it uses to predict what is going to come out of this Bakken Play," Moeller adds, "More Importantly, we`re in constant communication with our customers; listening to their needs and trying to come up with projects that meet those needs and provide a viable return for Enbridge as well."

The company`s Bakken Expansion Project is comprised of construction on a new oil off-loading sites near Grenora and Epping, North Dakota as well as new pipelines that will allow oil to flow to main pipelines in either Saskatchewan or Minnesota.

Moeller says, "It`s exciting from the projects that we get to do- investments we get to make and the projects we get to build and turn on and get more oil to market. but the challenges are real. Enbridge has tripled it`s workforce in the last 5 years and we need to probably do that again in the next five years."

Moeller says finding housing and workforce retention within the industry are the biggest issues.

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