Canada-to-Wyoming Oil Pipeline Secures Presidential Permit to Advance

The allow references Bridger’s software, putting the pipeline below the jurisdiction of the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Supplies Security Administration. “Barely totally different from the final administration,” Trump instructed reporters after signing the allow, according to pool reports, referencing former President Joe Biden’s revocation of the cross-border allow on his first day in workplace in January 2021.

Earlier than breaking ground, Bridger should nonetheless safe a Montana Main Facility Siting Act Certificates of Compliance, a federal Bureau of Land Administration right-of-way authorization and a full Environmental Influence Assertion that satisfies each the Nationwide Environmental Coverage Act and Montana’s equal statute.

Paperwork reviewed by ENR present the pipeline can be constructed from API 5L X70 PSL-2 high-strength metal with a 36-in. outer diameter. Commonplace sections would carry a 0.5-in. wall thickness with 14–16 mil fusion-bonded epoxy coating; horizontal directional drill and bore sections—used in any respect main water and freeway crossings—would step as much as 0.625–0.750-in. wall thickness with a further 30-mil abrasion-resistant overcoating.

At full working energy, stress may attain 1,440 kilos per sq. inch gauge, with a minimal burial depth of 48 in.

Eight pump stations can be distributed alongside the route, with one sited on federal land close to the border crossing. The system would additionally embrace 72 mainline valve units at intervals of not more than 15 miles, positioned on either side of main water crossings to permit for rapid isolation within the occasion of a launch. A 50-ft everlasting right-of-way will probably be flanked by a 100-ft momentary building easement.

At main river crossings, together with the Yellowstone and Missouri, disclosures present Bridger would bore 30 ft to 40 ft beneath the riverbed. The corporate’s leak prevention program contains SCADA-based 24/7 distant monitoring, inline good pig inspection and cathodic safety.

Bridger spokesperson Invoice Salvin stated the corporate expects to start building in fall 2027 with completion by late 2028 or early 2029. “We designed the pipeline with integrity and security in thoughts,” he stated. “We’ve got emergency response plans ought to one thing occur the place oil occurs to get out of the road, which is pretty uncommon.”

No contractor has been named and no venture price estimate has been publicly disclosed.

The route runs about435 miles by means of 9 Montana counties and 210 miles by means of 5 Wyoming counties earlier than reaching the Guernsey hub in Platte County, the place it might join with current infrastructure offering entry to Cushing, Okla., and Gulf Coast markets.

RELATED

Keystone Pipe Materials, Construction Cited As Cause in Four Big Spills

Canadian Section, Environmental Hurdles Nonetheless Forward

On the Canadian aspect, South Bow Corp.—spun off in 2024 from TC Power, the Alberta-based firm that was set to construct the Keystone XL venture however cancelled it in June 2021. The motion price greater than $1 billion in provincial funding. 

South Bow says it’s evaluating what the corporate calls the Prairie Connector, leveraging about 150 km of Keystone XL pipe already put in in Alberta to ship crude to the Bridger line on the border.

“South Bow continues to guage the Prairie Connector venture, a possible growth of its Canadian asset base that may leverage current infrastructure and permitted corridors to enhance market entry for Canadian crude oil,” spokesperson Solomiya Martoiu stated in an emailed assertion to media.

At peak capability, the Bridger growth would transfer roughly two-thirds of the amount Keystone XL was designed to hold.

Environmental teams have pledged to contest the venture by means of state allowing and the required federal environmental affect assertion.

In a comment letter filed Could 1 with federal and Montana environmental officers on behalf of 15 organizations, Earthjustice argued that the pipeline put the surroundings and communities in danger. “The query shouldn’t be whether or not a pipeline will spill oil, however slightly when it’ll spill oil,” the letter states.

Bridger Pipeline Enlargement LLC and different True Cos. subsidiaries carry a documented spill historical past—together with a 2015 rupture that discharged greater than 50,000 gallons of crude into the Yellowstone River, a 2016 failure in North Dakota that launched greater than 600,000 gallons into the Little Missouri River and a tributary, and a 2022 diesel spill of 45,000 gallons in Wyoming. True subsidiaries paid a $12.5 million civil penalty to settle federal litigation over the Montana and North Dakota incidents.