Read more about DAPL: Reflecting on the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Next Chapter for the Bakken, April/May 2017 Issue.

By: Bob van der Valk

The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) route begins in the Bakken shale oil fields in northwest North Dakota and travels in a more or less straight line southeast, through South Dakota and Iowa, terminating at the oil tank farm near Patoka, Illinois. The pipeline is currently under construction by Dakota Access, a Houston, Texas based company and subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners.

The 1,172 mile pipeline has a permanent easement of 50 feet and a construction right-of-way of up to 150 feet. The 30-inch diameter pipeline is at least 48 inches underground from the top of the pipe or 2 feet below any drain tiles. The map below shows the route and where it intersects with the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in orange.

 

The pipeline is planned to carry 470,000 barrels per day of crude oil “based on contractual commitments to date”. The capacity may be increased up to 570,000 barrels per day.

The company estimated the pipeline would cost $3.78 billion, of which $1.4 billion would be invested in the North Dakota portion, $820 million in the South Dakota portion, $1.04 billion in the Iowa portion, and $516 million in the Illinois portion. Of this, $189 million would be paid to landowners.

Energy Transfer Partners estimates that the pipeline would create up to 40 permanent jobs and 8,200 to 12,000 temporary jobs.

In March 2016, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service issued a sovereign lands construction permit for the DAPL. In late May, 2016, the permit was temporarily revoked in three counties of Iowa, where the pipeline would cross the Big Sioux River and the Big Sioux Wildlife Management Area; historic and cultural sites of the Upper Sioux Tribe, including graves in Lyon County. Also in May, 2016, Iowa farmers filed lawsuits to prevent the state from using eminent domain to take their land.

Citing potential effects on and lack of consultation with the Native American Tribes, most notably the Standing Rock Sioux, in March and April, 2016, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Interior, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation asked the USACE to conduct a formal Environmental Impact Assessment and issue an Environmental Impact Statement. However, in July and August, 2016, USACE approved the water crossing permits and issued permissions for all but one necessary for the pipeline construction.

In June, 2016, the IUB voted 2 to 1 (Libby Jacobs and Nick Wagner in favor and Chairwoman Geri Huser against) to allow construction on non-sovereign lands to continue. The Sierra Club said this action was illegal before the US Corps of Engineers authorized the project. In late June, 2016, construction was allowed to resume in Lyon County after plans were changed to route the pipeline 85 feet below the site using directional boring, instead of trenching and disturbing the soil on the surface. In December, 2016, the approval was disputed in the Polk County District Court.

On July 27, 2016, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sued the USACE in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. On September 9, 2016, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg denied the motion for preliminary injunction. On September 10, 2016, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe filed an appeal which was denied on October 9, 2016.

In September the U.S Department of Justice received more than 33,000 petitions to review all permits and order a full review of the project’s environmental effects. On September 9, 2016, a joint statement was issued by the US Departments of Justice, Army, and Interior temporarily halting the project on federal land bordering or under the Lake Oahe reservoir. The US federal government asked the company for a “voluntary pause” on construction near that area until further study was done on the region extending 20 miles around Lake Oahe. Energy Transfer Partners rejected the request to voluntarily halt construction on all surrounding private land and resumed construction. On September 13, 2016, chairman and CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, Kelcy Warren, responded to the federal government’s request, saying concerns about the pipeline’s impact on the water supply were “unfounded”. Warren said that “multiple archaeological studies conducted with state historic preservation offices found no sacred items along the route”. Warren said that the company will meet with officials in Washington “to understand their position and reiterate our commitment to bring the Dakota Access Pipeline into operation.”

On November 1, 2016, President Obama announced that his administration “is monitoring the situation and has been in contact with the USACE to examine the possibility of rerouting the pipeline to avoid lands that Native Americans hold sacred”.

On November 14, 2016, the USACE announced that “the Army has determined that additional discussion and analysis are warranted in light of the history of the Great Sioux Nation’s dispossessions of lands, the importance of Lake Oahe to the Tribe, our government-to-government relationship, and the statute governing easements through government property.”

Energy Transfer Partners responded by criticizing the Obama administration for “political interference” and said that “further delay in the consideration of this case would add millions of dollars more each month in costs which cannot be recovered.”

North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple criticized the decision saying the pipeline would be safe and that the decision was “long overdue”.

Craig Stevens, spokesman for the Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now (MAIN) Coalition, called the Corps’s announcement “yet another attempt at death by delay” and said the Obama administration “has chosen to further fan the flames of protest by more inaction.”

North Dakota Senator John Hoeven said in a statement that the delay “will only prolong the disruption in the region caused by protests and make life difficult for everyone who lives and works in the area.”

Speaking to CBS News in November, Kelcy Warren said that it would be “100 percent sure that the easement gets granted and the pipeline gets built” when newly elected President elect Donald Trump came into office in January.

On December 4, 2016, the USACE announced that it would not grant an easement for the pipeline to be drilled under Lake Oahe and was undertaking an environmental impact statement to look at possible alternative routes.

Jo-Ellen Darcy said that “the best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternate routes for the pipeline crossing”. Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners issued a same-day response saying that the White House’s directive “is just the latest in a series of overt and transparent political actions by an administration which has abandoned the rule of law in favor of currying favor with a narrow and extreme political constituency.” They said that the companies “fully expect to complete construction of the pipeline without any additional rerouting in and around Lake Oahe. Nothing this Administration has done today changes that in any way.”

On January 18, 2017, the USACE filed its formal Notice of Intent to conduct the Environmental Impact Statement process. The notice opened a thirty-day comment on the scope of the EIS, which concerns the crossing of Lake Oahe. The proposed EIS would consider “Alternative locations for the pipeline crossing the Missouri River”, direct and indirect risks, and impacts of an oil spill on the lake, the Standing Rock Sioux’s water supply, and their “water, treaty fishing, and hunting rights”; as well as their treaty rights to the lake. The same day U.S. District Judge James Boasberg denied ETP’s request to delay the EIS process.

President Donald Trump signing the Executive Order to advance the construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. January 24th, 2017

On January 24, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to advance the construction of the pipeline under “terms and conditions to be negotiated”. The order would expedite the environmental review that Trump described as “an incredibly cumbersome, long, horrible permitting process”.

On February 7, 2017, the USACE sent to the United States Congress a notice of intent to grant an easement under Lake Oahe no earlier than 24 hours following notification of the delivery of the notification. On February 9, 2017, the Cheyenne River Sioux sued the easement decision, citing an 1851 treaty and interference with the religious practices of the tribe.

On February 22, 2017, the protest site was cleared, as that was the deadline for the camp to be cleared by protesters. Although many left voluntarily, ten people were arrested in conflict of this event. They were given the option to leave voluntarily and even with the arrests, there was no major conflict.

The “fill” of the DAPL with Bakken crude oil is expected to start no later the second quarter of this year.

WASHINGTON, D.C. –North Dakota Petroleum Council (NDPC) Vice President Kari Cutting will testify before two U.S. House subcommittees today on the subject of Bakken Petroleum: The Substance of Energy Independence.
In her testimony to the House Subcommittee on Energy and Subcommittee on Oversight, Cutting will address the industry’s safety record and goals, the qualities of Bakken crude, the steps taken by the industry to properly classify and ship Bakken crude oil, and steps taken to ensure emergency responders are prepared to handle any incidences that may occur.

“Three independent studies have now shown that Bakken crude is similar to other North American light, sweet crude oils in gravity, vapor pressure, flash point and initial boiling point,” says Cutting. “According to these studies, Bakken crude oil chemical properties attest to its proper classification as a Class 3 flammable liquid. This category contains most of the valuable fuels and fuel feed stocks offered for transportation in the United States.”

With the increase of Bakken crude being shipped by rail, however, Cutting stressed the industry’s continued commitment to safely handling and transporting this cargo, including its partnership with railroads and local responders to develop a common educational tool to be distributed broadly to fire departments either through web portal or DVDs. This information is available for companies to use in continued interaction with EMS personnel.

The oil and gas industry will also continue development of additional response resources and periodic meetings to keep the lines of communication open to maximize information sharing of the latest data on emergency response for crude and other flammable liquids incidents.

“Hazardous Materials transported by rail arrive safely at their destination 99.997% of the time, but all stakeholders recognize the importance of implementing additional safety measures to reduce the probability of the remaining 0.003%,” says Cutting. “Routing analysis, infrastructure inspection and maintenance, railcar design, and additional training and information for Emergency Management personnel are all efforts being addressed.”

The joint hearing of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Subcommittee will begin at 2:00 p.m. EDT. The hearing may be viewed online at http://science.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-energy-and-subcommittee-oversight-joint-hearing-bakken-petroleum-substance.

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ATTACHMENT: Cutting Testimony

For media inquiries, contact Tessa Sandstrom by email. (I will not be reachable via telephone, so please email with questions).

Since 1952, the North Dakota Petroleum Council has been the primary voice of the oil and gas industry in North Dakota. The Petroleum Council represents more than 525 companies involved in all aspects of the oil and gas industry, including oil and gas production, refining, pipeline, mineral leasing, consulting, legal work, and oil field service activities in North Dakota, South Dakota, and the Rocky Mountain Region. Our members produced 98 percent of the 313.5 million barrels of oil produced in North Dakota last year.

Wind River Hotel and Casino Ad Banenr

Publisher’s preface: Every morning we’re inundated with sensationalized accounts of events that are presented as news when, in fact, these accounts are accusing diatribes built on finger-pointing and fact-omissions. We’re digesting our morning coffee along with emotionally charged rants created to serve the agendas of those who prepare them, rants that turn the front page into the editorial page.

Too often the target is the U.S. Oil & Gas Industry, the industry that’s worn a BULLSEYE on its back for the last few decades while, ironically, providing the country’s economy with one of the most important elements for growth: low-cost energy. However, since we at the Bakken Oil Business Journal know the U.S. Oil & Gas Industry is the industry that opens the door to increasing the prosperity of the US more than any other, I present you with something real, an account of some hard-working folks who are showing the world why the US is the greatest country in the world, why it is the land of the free and home of the brave.

By:  Marissa van der Valk

027Travis Cooksey is the Safety Coordinator for Continental Resources in North Dakota and Montana.  He performs safety inspections on workover rigs, drilling rigs and well sites.  His overall duties include finding ways to keep the men and women out of harms way in the Bakken oil patch.

How does a California surfer end up in the oil fields of North Dakota?  The simple answer could be that he drove there, but life’s journey wasn’t so simple.  It involved biotechnology, the US Navy, a pregnant wife, a fifth wheel and the love of family and country.

Travis Cooksey was born in Redondo Beach, California located in Los Angeles County, which is known for its white sandy beaches and spectacular surfing. Travis is the baby in a family of four boys. He spent his formative years in Camarillo, California, a suburb 45 miles north of Los Angeles. He was a state ranked 800 meter runner in high school and qualified for Nationals in his senior year.  After high school, Travis first jobs were as a pool cleaner and asbestos remover.

He was first introduced to surfing about 20 years ago through a neighbor turned best friend Leroy, who gave him a wetsuit and surfboard for his birthday. Travis describes this gift as the gift that kept on giving. He started surfing and fell in love with catching the next big wave.

Travis-US FlagIn 1990, Travis was hired to work at bio-technology company Amgen Inc located in Thousand Oaks, California.  For the next 13 years Travis worked as a lab technician in the human genomics laboratory. His coworkers describe Travis as being a hard worker with a penchant for telling hilarious stories. He was also described as being fiercely loyal to his family and his country. This is why at 34 years old Travis decided to join the US Navy.

Travis enlisted in the Navy in 2003 at the ripe old age of 34 just one year away from the cut off age.  And his decision to enlist was triggered by the tragic events on September 11, 2001.  He joined through the Navy’s Delayed Entry Program (DEP) which is a program designed to give the recruit some time to get their life in order before going to boot camp. Travis describes his time in boot camp as ‘not an easy time’.

The training instructors tended to be harder on recruits who were over thirty years old.  Travis describes himself as a highly dedicated loyal American with a heart full of patriotism so even though boot camp was difficult, no one was going to stop him from reaching his goal to succeed.

Travis went into the Navy as a reservist, but right after graduation from hospital corps school he received THE letter from President Bush putting him on full active duty status. He was first stationed at Great Lakes in Illinois and then was stationed in Port Hueneme, California. He also spent time at Camp Pendleton and ended his military career at Point Mugu.  He was attached to shore duty hospitals and squadrons with service to the special E.O.D. (explosive ordinance disposal) unit.

He received three NAM’s (Navy Achievement Medal) awards.  Travis had a tough time finding work in California, Oregon and Washington six months prior to being released from active duty.  And after 8 years in the US Navy Travis was faced with a decision, re-enlist for another tour of duty or go to work for the brother of his Navy Chief, who was hauling crude oil in Williston, North Dakota.

The US Navy’s loss was the Bakken’s gain when Travis decided to take the job in the booming oil patch of North Dakota. He was honorably discharged as a Petty Officer Second Class (PO2).

Driving in the snow - travisTravis is the father to four sons: Brandon 22, Braydon 12, Tayln 5, Pacey 2, and he and his wife Michelle are currently expecting their first daughter in July. He moved to Williston in October of 2011. He and Michelle, who was pregnant with Pacey at the time of making the move to North Dakota, loaded up their fifth wheel and took Talyn and their dog on the 1,600 mile drive to Williston.

Travis worked for Montana Mid-West Trucking, which is a sub-contractor for Plains Oil. Their first winter in North Dakota was a tough one; his wife, Tayln, Pacey (Brandon and Braydon live in California) and a dog lived in a 31 foot fifth wheel in the harsh winter of the Midwest. Travis was determined to get his family in a house before the next winter. After working for Montana Mid-West Trucking, he received a job working at Jacam Chemicals hauling chemicals. He worked for Jacam for a little over a year.

Travis was not able to get his family into a home at the start of their second winter in Williston.  He had a house built and with Michelle expecting their newly expected edition he could not have picked a better time.

When asked what he loves best about living in Williston and North Dakota Travis said: “I love the cold and the snow. I also love the people. It is one of the few places left with old school thinking and privileged rights of American freedom” for which he fought while serving his country.

rig-sunrise-travisTravis misses the life of a surfer and his family in California, but he has found a new home working and living in the Bakken of Western North Dakota and Eastern Montana.

Travis is one very proud American who still listens to the National Anthem before work every morning and Taps before bedtime each night.

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Travis Cooksey and Marissa van der Valk were co-workers at Amgen, a pharmaceutical company, at their Thousand Oaks, CA headquarters.  Travis worked in the same laboratory with Marissa in which she performed DNA sequencing experiments for the Human Genome Project.  Marissa now lives in Basking Ridge, New Jersey and is the daughter of Bob van der Valk , the Senior Editor of the Bakken Oil Business Journal.

By:  Bob van der Valk

Traffic on the interstate highways and rails has become part of the way modern way of life.  Rail tanker car traffic hauling crude oil increased in multiples over the last five years and will continue to do so every year until more infrastructure is build to handle all of this new found oil.   Additional crude oil production in the Williston basin, within the Bakken Shale Formation is going at full speed on our way toward make our country energy secure.

The US and Canada rail systems are currently being over utilized with the lack of infrastructure reaching the point of having major accidents.  The one in Lac-Mégantic near Quebec on Saturday, July 6th killed up to 53 people along with destroying most the small village.  Railroad tracks laid over 100 years ago are still being used today but with higher and heavier traffic than for which they were originally designed.

The 70 thousand barrels of Bakken sweet light crude oil was being shipped via rail from Trenton, North Dakota to Saint John, New Brunswick with eventual delivery destination of the Irving Oil refinery.  World Fuel Services had title to the crude oil and 50 thousand barrels were lost in the derailment caused by human error.   The MM&A engineer had stopped the 102 chain of rail cars without setting the brake.  While he walked to town to get some rest the train rolled backwards eventually derailing and exploding into a fireball killing people and destroying most of the town.

You may not like pipelines or fossil fuels but the most efficient and safest way to move the highly volatile sweet Bakken Oil crude oil is by pipeline. Increased hauling of crude oil with our overused and in some cases antiquated rail system may well turn out to be “Hell on Wheels”.

The town of Lac-Mégantic near Quebec Canada was named for the lake near which it is located and was named by the Amerindian Abernaki tribe.  It means “Place Where the Fish Are Held” and Lac is the French word for Lake. The small village is about 20 miles north of the Maine border
As environmental disasters go, the explosion Saturday, July 6, 2013 of a runaway crude oil tanker train is a major catastrophe. One thousand people were forced to evacuate the immediate area. Quebec’s environment minister reported 26,000 gallons of crude oil spilled into the Chaudière River and could possibly reach Quebec and the St. Lawrence River before too long.

The derailed 72-car train belonged to MM &A, which is a subsidiary of Illinois-based multinational Rail World, and was carrying North Dakota shale oil extracted by hydraulic fracturing to the massive Irving Oil refinery in the port city of Saint John in New Brunswick, Canada.   They refine the crude oil into gasoline and diesel.  Irving then uses pipelines to ship their finished products to the Northeast US as well as supply Canadian petroleum distributors.

The Wall Street Journal reported in their March 2013 article,  the US rail system moved 9,500 carloads of crude oil in 2008 and surged to 233,811 carloads in 2012. During the same period, the total number of spills and accident increased exponentially. A derailed train accident spilled 714 barrels of crude oil in western Minnesota in March 2013 on frozen land.  But, this accident resulted in a quick and efficient clean up with the railroad skating by without doing much damage to the environment.

Application for the Keystone XL pipeline permit was first filed with the US State Department in late 2008. Since then, the amount of oil being shipped on rails has risen 24-fold mostly shipped mostly on the Burlington, Northern, and Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad owned by Berkshire Hathaway.  Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha and main stockholder of Berkshire Hathaway, has been am ardent supporter of BOLD Nebraska, which is blocking the Keystone XL from being recommended through Nebraska.  The second application is waiting for recommendation by the US State Department for an eventual final up or down decision from President Obama.

Earlier this year Jane Kleeb, the Director of Bold Nebraska, stated the Keystone XL pipeline would be build over her “dead body”.  The problem there is a possibility resulting in more dead bodies, hopefully not hers, if the Keystone XL pipeline does not receive its approval to build the necessary northern leg from Alberta, Canada to Steele, Nebraska.

 

Baker, Montana will be the location for an on-ramp into the Keystone XL pipeline to be utilized to ship a minimum of 100 thousand barrels per day of Bakken crude oil to the Gulf Coast of the US.  The total capacity of the pipeline is 830 thousand barrels with most of the oil in the pipeline coming from Alberta, Canada in the form of oil sands crude oil also called bitumen.  It is heavier than light sweet crude oil and is the type of heavy sour crude oil used in most US oil refineries to crack into gasoline and diesel fuel as well as other products.

The southern leg has already started construction from Steele, Nebraska to Cushing, Oklahoma with President Obama taking credit for accelerating the approval process for this section.   It was a great photo opportunity for President Obama during the last Presidential election.  Only one problem the southern leg did not need his approval.  Only pipelines between countries have to go through the process of being reviewed and recommended for approval to the President.

The disaster at Lac-Mégantic should be a wake up call for this Administration to do the right thing and approve the permit for construction and operation for the full length of the Keystone XL pipeline to be approved without delay.

Video by Lac-Mégantic resident Adrien Aubert, who filmed the blast on July 6, 2013.

Do What You Came Here To Do: Work

New Montana State Fund campaign urges Bakken workers to take personal responsibility for safety.

March 28, 2013 — In recent years, tens of thousands of workers have converged in the Bakken oil fields, drawn by the allure of high-paying jobs. But with these jobs can come injuries. That’s why Montana State Fund, the state’s largest provider of workers’ compensation insurance, is launching a campaign that urges employees and employers alike to take personal responsibility for workplace safety.

SafetyFestMT comes to Sidney

WHAT: Three-day safety conference offering workshops and classes to help employers and employees improve safety on the job.

WHO: SafetyFestMT is organized by Montana Department of Labor and Industry in partnership with WorkSafeMT.

WHEN: April 16-18, 2013

WHERE: Richland County Fairgrounds and the Montana State University Eastern Agricultural Research Center, Sidney, Montana

COST: FREE

REGISTRATION & MORE INFO: www.SafetyFestMT.com

“People who come to the Bakken often give up a lot in pursuit of good jobs. We want them to remain safe in those jobs,” said Mary Boyle, communications specialist with Montana State Fund. “Our message on radio, billboards, gas pumps, and in bar and café restrooms is to remind folks to stay focused, ask questions if they don’t understand their job responsibilities, and look out for the well-being of the guy next to them.”

To be sure, workplace safety issues aren’t confined to the oil fields. More employees are injured in Montana than in almost every other state, and workers injured in Montana stay out of work an average of 23 days longer than workers in the rest of the country.

Even so, conditions in the Bakken can challenge even the most skilled worker. Marathon shifts with few days off can lead to exhaustion. A culture that celebrates toughness, speed and self-reliance sometimes fosters a tendency to lose focus, which leads to injuries. Some people may fear they will lose their jobs for speaking up or asking questions about safety.

While workplace injuries are always disruptive, they can be particularly hard on workers in the Bakken, many of whom come to the region from elsewhere, leaving their support networks of family and friends behind.

New workers are particularly susceptible to injury in the Bakken. Employees in Montana’s petroleum and supporting industries who suffer injuries have an average of two years’ experience on the job, compared to five years’ experience in all other industries across the state, according to data from Montana State Fund-insured employers.

On a positive note, MSF-insured injured employees in the petroleum and oil industries are off work an average of 13 weeks, compared to 31 weeks for all injured employees in all industries across the state. This statistic highlights how well employers in the petroleum industry help their employees return to work in a timely manner.

Research shows that safety-conscious workers are more accountable and, thus, more productive. Safety-focused companies are five times more likely to be in the top 20 percent of their respective industries on productivity, quality, efficiency and employee satisfaction, according to a study published in the June 2010 issue of EHS Today, a worker and workplace protection publication.

Boyle offers some specific tips for workers in the Bakken:

• Slow down and focus. Working 12- to 16-hour shifts, 21 days straight, can zap you. Speed and lack of focus in almost any job can lead to recklessness; and recklessness leads to injury.

• Take breaks at regular intervals. Stop and walk around or stretch out. It improves circulation and helps you refocus once you’re back on task.

• Stay healthy. Eat fruits and vegetables, stay in shape and limit alcohol intake during long stretches of consecutive work days. This will help you maintain focus — and keep your job.

• Sleep. Given housing conditions, sleeping isn’t always easy. But try to get eight quality hours. It will give you the energy you need to remain attentive during the longest days.

• Ask questions if you don’t understand how to operate a particular piece of equipment or if you don’t know what you’re being asked to do.

Montana workers, managers and employers are encouraged to attend the upcoming free SafetyFestMT event in Sidney, scheduled for April 16-18, 2013. Focused around workplace safety issues and training specific to oil field workers, this three-day event offers sessions including HAZWOPER refresher training, PEC Oil & Gas Basic Orientation safety awareness, and 10-hour OSHA courses on construction and general industry safety. Registration for the Sidney SafetyFestMT is now open at www.SafetyFestMT.com.

Montanans can download posters and learn more about safety issues and tips relevant to working in the Bakken at www.safemt.com.

ABOUT MONTANA STATE FUND:

Montana State Fund is the leading provider of workers’ compensation insurance for Montana businesses and their employees. Through its safety and Return to Work programs, the organization works to improve the safety and well-being of all working Montanans. www.safemt.com

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