U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued several pipeline permits to facilitate the transportation of crude oil and petroleum products between the U.S. and Canada, including a permit for constructing new pipeline infrastructure .
Documents released by the White House include a permit allowing the Bakken Pipeline Company to “construct, connect, operate and maintain” pipeline facilities in Burke County, N.D., at the Canada-U.S. border.
The permit says Bakken Pipeline Company is a limited partnership and subsidiary of Enbridge, which operates multiple cross-border oil and gas pipeline networks in Canada and the U.S.
Other permits were issued to Enbridge for the maintenance and operation of existing pipelines at border locations in North Dakota and Michigan.
A spokesperson for Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson’s office told Global News in an email that the permits “pertain to a previously announced private sector-led optimization and the operation of an existing pipeline.”
Global News has reached out to Enbridge for comment and more information.
A senior government official told Global News on background that the permits were not related to negotiations between the Liberal government and the Trump administration on a possible energy partnership that was being pursued alongside a renewed trade and security agreement.
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Those talks were suspended by Trump last fall, but trade talks have continued behind the scenes leading up to this summer’s review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement. Trump administration officials have also continued tp
The government official also referred Global News to Enbridge’s announcement last November that it had approved a US$1.4-billion plan to send more oilsands crude south of the border despite trade tensions between Canada and the U.S.
The first phase of the company’s Mainline Optimization project will see 150,000 barrels per day of capacity added to its vast cross-Canada system, the backbone of the country’s oil transport infrastructure that taps into the U.S. Midwest.
The plan also adds 100,000 barrels per day of capacity to the Flanagan South system, enabling greater volumes to flow from Illinois to the U.S. Gulf Coast. That’s the site of the world’s largest refining complex where facilities are well equipped to process heavy oilsands crude.
Those capacity additions are expected to become available by 2027, Enbridge said at the time.
Enbridge has said a second Mainline Optimization phase could add another 250,000 barrels per day of capacity in 2028, making use of the existing Dakota Access Pipeline, which runs from North Dakota to southern Illinois.
At the time of the first phase’s approval, Enbridge said it was prioritizing expansion of existing pipeline capacity rather than building a new pipeline from scratch.
In early January 2025, ahead of Trump’s inauguration for his second presidential term, the Alberta government announced it was forming a working group with Enbridge to explore expanding pipeline capacity to the U.S.
Trump administration officials have recently spoken about the value Alberta’s energy resources could provide to the U.S., particularly if the province sought independence from the rest of Canada.
—with files from The Canadian Press and Reuters
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