Enbridge Benefits from Boom | Video

Eric Steltzer | 12/8/2011

You can`t always see them, but there are hundreds upon hundreds of pipe-lines beneath North Dakota soil. One company that has a lot to do with it is Enbridge. And it says it will continue to grow.

Hidden under the soil are more than 970 miles of Enbridge Pipe, pushing oil from Eastern Montana all the way to Clearbrook Minnesota, and an Enbridge spokeswoman says it`s only the beginning.

"It has drastically increased. Since 2005 we probably tripled the number of employees. In 2005 we had just over 30 employees. Now we`re looking at a little over a hundred a few years later" says Community Relations Advisor Katie Haarsager

Enbridge is pumping 210 thousand barrels of oil a day to Minnesota, and another 25 thousand to Canada. Soon those 25 thousand barrels will become 145 thousand barrels thanks to the Bakken Expansion project. This includes the Beaver Lodge Loop Expansion from South of Tioga over to Berthold and the Bakken Pipeline project near Lignite.

"Both of those will increase our capacity that route up to the international border up to 145 thousand barrels a day which should be done by 2013" says Haarsager.

And there’s still room to grow.

Haarsager says, "The potential growth in the Bakken is pretty much limitless as we`ve seen the numbers increasing so drastically. No one anticipated this and now we see these numbers and are looking at the drawing board to see what we can contain."

And the oil is now moving faster than ever.

"We`ve done a few different projects to increase export capacity. One is putting in a drag reducing agent which allows oil to go through the pipes a little faster so we can increase oil we run through the system. We also did a portal reversal going from our Berthold facility to our international border. Now we can export it out of Canada and back to the states" says Haarsager.

Enbridge is also gives back to the communities that its pipe goes through. It`s given grants to police departments, ambulance services, and other emergency responders who need incident training or supplies.

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