Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) has decided to shelve its plans to build a 1,930 km crude oil pipeline in the United States, amidst falling oil prices. The company had started a binding open commitment period for the project in September 2014. The pipeline would have had an initial capacity of approximately 340,000 bbl/d of crude oil, expandable to more than 700,000 bbl/d and would have stretched between the Williston Basin of North Dakota and the Cushing hub in Oklahoma through the Powder River and Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basins in the United States. Commissioning was expected in the third quarter of 2017.
Other large crude pipeline projects in the Bakken area have been cancelled, even before the price fall, such as ONEOK's Bakken-to-Cushing pipeline (scrapped in 2012) or Koch Pipeline's Bakken-to-Illinois pipeline (scrapped in 2013). However, there are still many pipeline projects still under development, creating a strong competition. Energy Transfer Partners plans to invest US$5bn in its 450,000 bbl/d North Dakota-to-Illinois "Dakota Access Pipeline" project expected in 2016 (Phillips 66 owns a 25% stake), while Enbridge plans to invest US$2.6bn in its North Dakota-to-Minnesota and Wisconsin "Sandpiper Pipeline" project, expected in 2017.