A pipeline project to carry crude oil from the Rockies and Bakken Shale to a hub in Cushing, which is located about 60 miles north of Seminole, has been abandoned by Phillips 66 Partners.

S&P Global Platt reported this week that the Phillips 66 Partners-led pipeline project was put on indefinite hold more than a year ago when the pandemic crushed global crude oil demand and, since then, the US energy sector has kept tight reins on capital spending.

Phillips 66 Partners will record an estimated impairment of between $180 million and $210 million in the first quarter for pulling the plug on the long-dormant project, it said in a statement April 5. The pipeline would have

The pipeline would have stretched 700 miles from Guernsey, Wyoming, to Cushing, including a connection to a previously proposed Platteville, Colorado, terminal.

While US crude oil production remains depressed since the beginning of the pandemic, there is the potential for more alternate pipeline demand from the Bakken if the main crude oil artery, the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), is ordered shut. The next federal court hearing on the potential DAPL closure was scheduled for April 9.

As for the future of DAPL, a federal appeals court ruling in January essentially confirmed the four-year-old pipeline is operating illegally without the necessary legal permitting, and that it is up to the US Army Corps of Engineers, now under US President Joe Biden, to determine whether it will let DAPL continue to flow crude oil while a court-ordered environmental review determines whether the needed easement is deserved.