Trump grants Bridger 500,000 bd/d oil pipeline permit to cross Canada-US border

Bridger Pipeline LLC was granted approval from President Trump Apr. 30 to build and operate a $2-billion pipeline expected to bring about 500,000 b/d of Canadian crude and refined products from Canada through Montana to a terminal in Guernsey, Wyo.

The 647-mile, 36-in. OD line would use nearly 100 miles of pipe already built for the cancelled Keystone XL project. Keystone, first proposed in the early 2010s, won US government approval in 2020 during Trump’s first term, but former President Joe Biden revoked the controversial pipeline’s permit when he took office in 2021, citing environmental and tribal concerns.

The pipeline, a subsidiary of True Companies, has a potential expansion capacity of 1.1 million b/d. The company is seeking a partner to build a subsequent line to either Cushing, Okla., or to the US Gulf Coast for refining or export.

While Trump’s presidential permit allows the pipeline to cross the US-Canada border at Phillips County, Montana, the project still requires federal and state permits to proceed.

Both the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) are reviewing the proposal. In early April, BLM initiated an environmental impact statement review of the pipeline proposal.

The Bridger pipeline project faces opposition from a coalition of Indigenous, conservation, and environmental groups concerned about the climate, potential spills, and the line’s passage through lands significant to Native Peoples and across the Yellowstone, Missouri, and Poplar Rivers, according to the environmental group Earthjustice.