ONEOK Partners to build crude oil pipeline for $1.8bn

ONEOK Partners has unveiled plans to invest up to $1.8bn to build the Bakken Crude Express Pipeline between the Bakken Shale in North Dakota to Cushing, Oklahoma.

The company’s 1,300-mile crude oil pipeline project will have a capacity to transport 200,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The proposed pipeline route will also be well-positioned to transport crude-oil production from the Niobrara Shale, a formation which lies across Northwest Colorado, Northwest Kansas, Southwest Nebraska and Southeast Wyoming.

ONEOK Partners president Terry Spencer said this proposed pipeline will provide producers with efficient and reliable transportation of their product.

"It also represents our entry into the crude-oil transportation business and utilises our existing core capabilities of transporting and storing natural gas, natural gas liquids and refined petroleum products," added Terry.

ONEOK Partners plans to start construction on the project in late 2013, with completion planned for early 2015.

The proposed pipeline route is expected to parallel more than 80% of the partnership’s existing and planned natural gas liquids pipelines.

Production from the Bakken shale formation reached 500,000 barrels a day last November, according to the recent data from the North Dakota Pipeline Authority.