It’s been two and a half years since the Dakota Access Pipeline was placed into service and the benefits of the $3.8 billion project continue to prove its value to North Dakota.
The pipeline, which connects the Bakken oil patch to the U.S. Gulf Coast, has substantially lowered transportation costs for producers and made Bakken oil more competitive with other producing regions like West Texas’ Permian Basin. Moving Bakken oil by train cost producers as much as $25 a barrel, while sending it through the Dakota Access Pipeline is estimated to be below $10 a barrel, according to Lynn Helms, …