A senior House Democrat called on federal regulators yesterday to ensure a "level playing field" for domestic crude producers that are accusing Canadian pipeline giant Enbridge Inc. of refusing to carry Bakken oil from an interconnection in Minnesota.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should strongly consider allowing a small Colorado operator to link its proposed 450-mile pipeline from the booming Bakken Shale play in North Dakota and Montana to a highway of pipes carrying Canadian oil sands crude into the United States, Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota said in a letter to FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff.

High Prairie has accused Enbridge of rejecting its proposed linkage with the Lakehead system while planning future connections for its own subsidiaries at Clearbrook, Minn. -- accusations that Enbridge has denied. The Canadian firm has argued that its 1,900-mile system won't have the capacity to accommodate the U.S. crude by the time the proposed pipeline is built by late 2013 (Greenwire, July 12).

But producers and refiners throughout the Midwest are accusing the Canadian company of reserving space for an expected surge of oil sands crude that would have been shipped through the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which the Obama administration delayed. Peterson's support arrives on the heels North Dakota oil producers, American Indian tribes and refiners' asking FERC to step in and force Enbridge to comply.

"We need to ensure that new market participants have open access to the common carrier pipelines located across the country and are given the same treatment as more established companies," Peterson said. "All market participants should have confidence that they are operating on a level playing field."

Enbridge has argued that linking the High Prairie pipeline to its system in Minnesota would constrain capacity on its pipelines between Clearbrook, Minn., and Superior, Wis., a section of its system that ships mainly Bakken crude and Canadian oil sands crude.

Enbridge has also said a sufficient number of proposed projects exist to ensure North Dakota has pipeline capacity to ship Bakken crude to market and that the state's capacity needs are not relevant in the case before FERC.

"The likelihood of any shipper originating in the Bakken being left without service is extremely remote, and in any event beyond the scope of High Prairie's Complaint, which only involves its request for a pipeline interconnection at Clearbrook," Enbridge wrote in a filing to FERC.

It's not clear how or when the commission will weigh in on the issue.

FERC said in May that it doesn't have the authority to force Enbridge to interconnect with the High Prairie pipeline and that High Prairie is not a current or prospective shipper that would be protected by the anti-discrimination provisions of the Interstate Commerce Act.

Even so, High Prairie is arguing that FERC's legal authority under the law to address "discriminatory" behavior is clear, and the commission must create a level playing field for all market participants.