Enbridge’s cross-border pipelines move more than 3 million barrels a day, and on Wednesday the Trump administration signed off on keeping them that way. A series of presidential permits went to Enbridge Energy and its subsidiary Bakken Pipeline Company, covering pipeline facilities on the U.S.-Canadian border in North Dakota and Michigan.
The White House went a step further for Bakken Pipeline. It may carry out whatever construction it needs, new pipelines included, at its facilities in Burke County, North Dakota, a county that sits on the border. The permit language allows the company “to construct, connect, operate, and maintain pipeline Border facilities … for the transport between the United States and Canada of crude oil and petroleum products of every description, refined or unrefined.”
Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy welcomed the decision in comments to Michigan Advance. “This important action enables Enbridge’s existing cross-border pipeline network, moving more than 3 million barrels a day, to continue safely and reliably delivering the energy that is foundational to both U.S. and Canadian economic competitiveness and security,” he said.
What Bakken runs in Burke County
The company’s assets in Burke County include a crude oil pump station near Lignite, North Dakota. A pipeline starts there and runs north to Steelman, Saskatchewan. Its existing capacity is 145,000 bpd.
Projects the permits do not touch
Industrial Info Resources, which wrote up the permits, follows more than 40 pipeline-related facilities that Enbridge owns in Michigan and North Dakota. By its data, Enbridge and its subsidiary have proposed projects worth more than $620 million across the two states.
Some of those sit outside Wednesday’s action. One is in Mackinaw City, Michigan, where Lake Michigan meets Lake Huron. Enbridge wants to replace four miles of aging pipeline and build a tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac, the waterway joining Michigan’s Upper and Lower peninsulas. The new line would carry 540,000 bpd of light crude oil, light synthetic crude oil and natural gas liquids.
A second proposal would expand the NEXUS Gas Transmission Pipeline by about 44 miles, from Highland to Ypsilanti, Michigan. That stretch would tie the existing 256-mile NEXUS line into the Vector Pipeline System near the Michigan-Ontario border.
Enbridge chief executive Greg Ebel gave the wider spending picture on a recent earnings-related conference call. The company is planning C$35 billion (US$24.9 billion) of sanctioned growth capital for projects due to enter service through 2030, he said, and a “significant portion” of that money is set to begin service in 2027.
