Prairie Public Broadcasting

ND needs pipelines to transport oil to and from the state BISMARCK, ND (Prairie Public) - North Dakota mineral resource director Lynn Helms says the state's new Pipeline Authority should promote new projects to move crude oil to refineries -- and to bring refined product back to North Dakota.

Western North Dakota oil producers saw their crude discounted because of bottlenecks in getting the crude to market. Helms says new projects by two pipeline companies have eased that -- but with North Dakota's production rising, there will be a continued need for pipeline capacity. And Helms says North Dakota needs more pipelines to bring refined gasoline back.

"The goal of the Industrial Commission and the state's Pipeline Authority is to make sure that every barrel of crude oil has at least two markets that it can be sold into, and every refinery and terminal has two pipes that it can put its product into," said Helms. "That way, competition really works. And if you have an outage or a problem here or there, you have a secondary source you can move to both to sell your crude oil and to bring product in."

But Helms says that won't happen overnight. He says permitting, siting and building a pipeline takes time. © Copyright 2012, Prairie Public