A crude-oil pipeline proposed between Guernsey and Cushing, Oklahoma, is poised to strengthen Wyoming’s role as a key crossroads in North America’s oil network — even though it likely won’t move a single barrel of Wyoming crude.
The project, called the Liberty Bridge Pipeline, will connect at Guernsey with a project previously proposed by Canada’s Southbow and True Companies’ for a 650-mile cross-border pipeline that would carry an initial 550,000 barrels of Canadian crude daily from Hardisty, Alberta, to Guernsey.
The pipeline could eventually scale to 1.3 million barrels of crude per day.
The Guernsey hub is an important oil and gas crossroads in Wyoming, sending oil to the Midwest as well as to Cushing, but much of its capacity for the Gulf Coast was already spoken for. That raised questions as to how half a million or more new barrels of Canadian crude arriving in Wyoming would get to the markets that need it.
With the announcement of the new pipeline, the mystery is solved.
Bridger Pipeline spokesman Bill Salvin confirmed for Cowboy State Daily that Bridger and Southbow are teaming to build the pipeline and that it will connect with the previously proposed pipeline from Alberta.
“Bridger and Southbow are going to jointly develop the Liberty Bridge Pipeline through this joint venture that’s going to be called Liberty Bridge Pipeline LLC,” Salvin said. “And essentially it’s going to be along existing pipeline corridors.”
The joint venture has already begun outreach to landowners and communities along the route, Salvin added.
