Dakota Access pipeline builder expects to close sale of Enbridge stake

The company building the controversial Dakota Access pipeline expects to close the sale of a minority stake in the project to Calgary-based Enbridge Inc., in light of the U.S. government's approval for its completion.

Energy Transfer Partners LLC has resumed construction at the disputed site on the Missouri River in Standing Rock, N.D., after receiving a required easement from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that was under orders to provide it from U.S. President Donald Trump. In a release, the company said it expected to complete previously announced debt and equity financing worth $2.6-billion (U.S.) "within the next several days." That includes the sale of a 37-per-cent interest in the Bakken pipeline system – which includes the Dakota Access pipeline – to Enbridge and Marathon Petroleum Corp. that was announced last August.

When the deal closes, Enbridge would acquire a 27.6-per-cent interest in the Bakken properties for $1.5-billion, to be held in its wholly owned U.S.-based subsidiary, Enbridge Energy Partners LP.

The deal had been scheduled to close in the third quarter but violent protests and legal delays forced the parties to extend the deadline twice. In January, the Calgary-based company extended the deadline to March 31, saying certain conditions still had to be met. Energy Transfer Partners had identified one of those conditions as the granting of the easement by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Mr. Trump ordered the army to speed up the granting of the easement in the same executive order in which he revived TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone XL pipeline by inviting the company to reapply for the presidential permit.

The granting of the easement "is a positive step forward," Enbridge spokeswoman Suzanne Wilton said in an e-mail. "Enbridge continues to work through closing conditions and will close when all conditions are met," she said, adding the company has not disclosed what those conditions are.

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe filed a legal challenge in a bid block completion of the 1,885-kilometre, $3.8-billion pipeline, which would carry crude from the Bakken fields of North Dakota to a market hub in Illinois that connects to Gulf Coast and Midwest refineries.

"This [Trump] administration has expressed utter and complete disregard for not only our treaty and water rights, but the environment as a whole," the Standing Rock Sioux said in a statement on their website.