April 15, 2026. Trump signed Presidential Permits authorizing new cross-border pipeline infrastructure in North Dakota...a 24-inch pipeline near Portal, ND authorized to move crude oil, diesel, gasoline, NGLs and jet fuel across the U.S.-Canada border. Additional permits for existing lines near Neche, ND that have been operating under permits from the 1990s...now replaced and upgraded.
This is the Bakken's backyard. Burke County. Pembina County. Northwest North Dakota. And for every hand in Alberta watching this...your barrels move through these lines too.
Here's why it matters.
North Dakota is producing 1.17 million barrels of oil per day. The problem was never the oil. The problem is always the same...getting the barrel out efficiently. Pipeline takeaway capacity determines whether you're flaring gas, hauling by rail, or moving product clean and profitable.
DAPL...the line that moves Bakken crude south to Illinois...has a nameplate capacity of 750,000 barrels per day and was carrying about 542,000 in recent months. The pipe has room. Better cross-border integration means more barrels move efficiently and producers see better netbacks.
Enbridge and Energy Transfer are also in discussions to reverse DAPL's flow direction...a move that would allow Canadian heavy crude to move south through the same system, potentially adding 250,000 barrels per day of capacity to the network.
The Hormuz strait is shut. About 20% of the world's seaborne oil trade moves through that corridor. Most of it isn't moving. The Bakken is one of the few places on earth positioned to fill that gap.
At $94 WTI with 23 active rigs in North Dakota, operators set their budgets before the war and they're not moving fast.
The White House signed it. Now someone has to build it...and the world doesn't have time to wait.