Oil Pipeline Project to Remain Stalled at Missouri River

Construction on a 1,154-mile pipeline that would carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois will remain halted at a site near the Missouri River, after a federal judge postponed a hearing to determine whether protesters should be prevented from accessing the site.

Tensions between the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which opposes the pipeline, and local police have escalated in recent weeks. More than two dozen protesters have been arrested after they blocked entry to the site 34 miles south of Mandan, N.D. The pipeline's developer, Dakota Access LLP, filed a lawsuit last week seeking to block protesters from the site.

Dakota Access is being built by Energy Transfer Partners LP and its affiliate, Sunoco Logistics Partners LP. Phillips 66, the refiner, owns a 25% stake. Enbridge Energy Partners LP and Marathon Petroleum Corp., bought a stake in the Dakota Access line for $2 billion earlier this month.

Judge Daniel Hovland of U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota pushed a hearing to decide whether to grant a preliminary injunction sought by the company to Sept. 8 from this Thursday. Meanwhile, he agreed to extend a temporary restraining order against the tribe's chairman Dave Archambault II and others who have protested the pipeline.

"The parties are strongly encouraged to meet and confer in good faith in an attempt to resolve this dispute prior to the hearing," the judge wrote in part.

On Tuesday, a coalition of Native American groups that oppose the pipeline sent out an appeal to human rights groups to come to the North Dakota site, calling the situation a crisis.

"We are committed to peaceful defense of our water and our territory," the groups said.

A spokeswoman for Energy Transfer Partners couldn't immediately be reached to comment Tuesday. The company has said construction continues at other points along the pipeline.

The Standing Rock Sioux argue that the pipeline threatens sacred sites and poses a risk to the tribe's drinking-water supply, since they say the pipeline would cross the Missouri River just upstream from the reservation.

The $3.7 billion pipeline is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year and would be a major conduit for crude oil from North Dakota's Bakken Shale formation, carrying as much as 470,000 barrels of oil a day or more.

Write to Kris Maher at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 23, 2016 12:15 ET (16:15 GMT)

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