The expansion, with an estimated cost of approximately $150 million, will add 40,000 bpd of capacity from the western end of the system to Minot, N.D. and 51,000 bpd of capacity from Minot to Clearbrook, Minn. This will increase total system capacity from 110,000 bpd to 161,000 bpd, with an in-service date of late 2009. Enbridge will file with FERC a cost-of-service-based expansion surcharge that will be added to existing tariff rates to fund the proposed expansion. No long-term volume commitments will be required for existing or new capacity.

This new expansion project is in addition to the existing 30,000 bpd expansion project that is under construction and targeted for completion by the end of 2007.

"We have responded to our customers' transport needs and modified our proposed expansion project. This approach, which still requires shipper support, is designed to benefit regional crude oil explorers, gatherers and producers, as well as refiners, by helping relieve a petroleum transportation bottleneck within the region," observed Brian Johnson, Enbridge North Dakota region manager.

The system gathers crude oil from production areas in western North Dakota and eastern Montana and transports that crude oil to Clearbrook, Minn., where the system interconnects with the Minnesota Pipeline and the Partnership's Lakehead System. From the Lakehead System, shippers can access most of the major crude oil refinery markets along the Great Lakes and in the Midwest.