NEW YORK — Enbridge Inc. and Energy Transfer Partners LP have entered into a joint-venture agreement to convert one of the three pipelines making up Energy Transfer’s 700-mile Trunkline system in the United States to transport oil instead of natural gas to the eastern Gulf Coast from an Illinois hub.

"As the project takes advantage of existing pipe in the ground, we can get it flowing to market sooner and at a lower cost than a new build," Enbridge president and chief executive officer Al Monaco said in comments accompanying the Calgary, Alberta-based company’s fourth-quarter earnings report.

In a similar development, TransCanada Corp., also of Calgary, recently said that it was considering repurposing parts of its Canadian mainline natural gas pipeline to carry crude oil (amm.com, Feb. 13).