CHICAGO — Oneok Pipeline Partners LP has dropped plans to build a 1,300-mile pipeline, citing a lack of interest by potential customers.

The Tulsa, Okla.-based energy transmission company had said that the $1.8-billion Bakken Crude Express Pipeline would have moved crude oil from the Bakken Shale’s Williston Basin in North Dakota and Montana to Cushing, Okla., a crude oil hub (amm.com, April 10).

"Despite the robust outlook for crude oil supply growth in the Williston Basin in the Bakken Shale, we did not receive sufficient long-term commitments under the terms we needed to construct the pipeline," Oneok president Terry K. Spencer said in a statement.

Despite the setback, Oneok remains committed to projects in the Williston Basin for producers of oil, as well as natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs), Spencer said. The company has between $4.2 billion and $4.8 billion of announced natural gas and NGL projects under way, many in the Bakken Shale, as well as another $2 billion in unannounced projects in its backlog.

Oneok still thinks the Bakken Crude Express would have an advantage over competing projects because of its proximity to the company’s Bakken NGL Pipeline, currently under construction, and other Oneok NGL pipeline corridors, Spencer said.