Enterprise Products Partners tells a pipeline summit in North Dakota in late June of 2014 it plans to build a 1,200 mile oil pipeline from the Bakken to Cushing, Oklahoma, a major gathering and distribution hub.

The pipeline is planned to be 30 inches in diameter and would originate in Stanley, ND. Company officials said it will have a capacity of 340,000 bbls of oil and should be online by the end of 2016. The pipeline would be Enterprise's first in North Dakota.

The Pipeline Summit was hosted by North Dakota Gov. Jack Darlymple on June 24th at the National Energy Center of Excellence on the Bismarck State College Campus. This is the second such summit hosted by the governor since the Bakken oil boom began. Currently, 70% of all oil produced in North Dakota is transported by rail. Truck transport has also been used a primary means of transporting oil to pipeline/rail facilities, due to an overall lack of pipeline infrastructure in the state.

Enterprise Makes the Headlines for Oil Exporting

Enterprise also made the headlines in June when the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security gave it and another company permission to export condensate from the Eagle Ford Shale play in South Texas to foreign buyers. The ruling marks the first time in forty years for exports of unrefined American oil, easing the oil export ban, which has been in place since the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s.

Read more: Oil Exporting Begins

The decision was handed down to the company in a private ruling from Commerce Department, according to the Wall Street Journal. The paper noted the private rulings by the Commerce Department define some ultra-light oil (i.e. condensate) as fuel after it has been minimally processed, making the oil eligible for sale outside of the U.S.  

With the door open to Enterprise to export condensate from the Eagle Ford, and domestic production reaching record levels in the U.S., exports of crude/condensate from the Bakken Shale could be on the horizon.