TransCanada launches open season for Marketlink project

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Oct. 5 -- TransCanada Corp. launched a binding open season to obtain firm commitments from interested parties for the Bakken Marketlink project, which would provide crude oil transportation service from Baker, Mont., to Cushing, Okla., and onward to the US Gulf Coast.

The proposed project would provide the first direct link between the Bakken oil-producing region in the Williston basin and key US markets near Cushing and along the Gulf Coast.

The project would provide Bakken producers with an alternative and competitive market access solution, using pipeline facilities that form part of TransCanada's proposed Keystone Gulf Coast expansion project.

Following the completion of a successful open season, which expires Nov. 10, TransCanada intends to proceed with the necessary regulatory applications for approvals to construct and operate the required facilities that are estimated to cost $140 million. The project is expected to commence in first-quarter 2013.