OREANDA-NEWS. The Illinois Commerce Commission has approved a certificate for Energy Transfer Partners to build the 450,000-570,000 b/d Dakota Access crude pipeline, moving the project closer to fruition.

The pipeline will carry light sweet crude from the Bakken shale of North Dakota to the oil hub at Patoka, Illinois. From there, the proposed Energy Transfer Crude Oil pipeline (ETCOP) would ship the crude to the US Gulf coast at Nederland, Texas.

Dakota Access still needs approval from regulators in Iowa and North Dakota. South Dakota last month approved the project's construction.

The Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) is not likely to decide on the project until late January or early February, a one-month delay of its original timetable. Opponents of the line have staked out Iowa as the primary battleground, saying it will disrupt landowners, threaten the environment and promote hydraulic fracturing used to complete wells in the Bakken shale.

Energy Transfer, which aims to get the line operating by the end of next year, says it is an important link to get onshore crude to coastal markets.

The North Dakota Public Service Commission is planning to discuss the project at a meeting on 11 January 2016.

US independent refiner Phillips 66 is an anchor shipper on Dakota Access and owns a 25pc interest in the project. Nederland terminal operator and Energy Transfer affiliate Sunoco Logistics owns 30pc. Energy Transfer and Phillips 66 are building the connecting Bayou Bridge line to Lake Charles, Louisiana, and plan to extend it to the hub at St James, Louisiana.