Trump issues Presidential permits for handful of oil pipelines

US President Donald Trump issued a handful of pipeline permits this week for projects relating to the transport of crude oil and petroleum products between Canada and the US. This included one permit for the construction of a new pipeline.

The permits were issued to Enbridge subsidiaries Enbridge Energy, Enbridge Pipelines (Southern Lights) and Bakken Pipeline. The majority concerned the maintenance and operation of existing pipelines at border points between the US and Canada.

The permit to build a new pipeline was awarded to Bakken Pipeline and covers the construction and operation of pipeline border facilities near Portal, North Dakota, for the transport of crude and petroleum products “of every description”. According to a Presidential memorandum posted by the White House on April 15, this includes both refined and unrefined products. Unrefined products were described as being inclusive of – but not limited to – naphtha, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), natural gas liquids (NGLs), jet fuel, gasoline, kerosene and diesel. They do not include natural gas.

The other permits, relating to existing pipelines, are also largely related to infrastructure at border crossing points in North Dakota, while two are related to border crossing points in Michigan.

A spokesperson for Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Tim Hodgson’s office was quoted as telling Global News that the permits pertained to a “previously announced private sector-led optimisation and the operation of an existing pipeline”.

Global News also cited a “senior government official” as saying on background that the permits were not related to negotiations between Canada’s Liberal government and the Trump administration on a possible energy partnership that was being pursued alongside a renewed trade and security agreement. The newspaper noted that those talks had been suspended by Trump in the autumn, but that trade talks had continued behind the scenes in the lead-up to this summer’s review of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

The government official reportedly also referred Global News to Enbridge’s announcement in November that it had approved a $1.4bn plan to ship more oil sands crude from Canada to the US despite trade tensions between the two countries.