The Trump administration on Wednesday issued nine presidential permits authorizing oil and liquid material crossings along the U.S.-Canada border for Enbridge’s lines. According to analysis from our friends at Plainview Energy, eight of these permits appear to serve as replacements or “refreshes” of existing authorizations. These updates are likely intended to strengthen legal language and modernize the regulatory standing of critical conduits. The refreshed permits cover Enbridge Mainline’s six existing lines in Pembina County, North Dakota, the primary gateway to the U.S. Additionally, the permits cover two of Enbridge’s Mainline export lines from St. Clair, Michigan back into Canada. The Southern Lights and Bakken lines also received refreshed permits covering their existing infrastructure.
While much of the administrative action reinforces existing operations, there is an issuance of a ninth permit for a “newly constructed 24-inch pipeline” tied to Enbridge’s Bakken Pipeline, which may act as a replacement to the current 12-inch border crossing line. This new authorization ties in with Enbridge’s Mainline Optimization 2 project (MLO2), which would see the re-reversal of Enbridge’s underutilized 145-Mb/d Bakken pipeline, which currently moves barrels from North Dakota to the Mainline in Saskatchewan, and a tie-in to the underutilized 750-Mb/d Energy Transfer-operated Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL; red line in map below). This larger 24-inch border crossing line is likely needed if MLO2 is to achieve its full 250 Mb/d. MLO2, has a targeted startup in 2028.
