The increased takeaway capacity that new projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) bring to the Bakken Shale will likely encourage increased crude production in the play, Garry Banda, midstream analyst for Stratas Advisors, told Midstream Connect.

Banda noted that DAPL, which was intensely opposed by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota and national environmental groups, increased its capacity as the project developed from 450,000 barrels per day (Mbbl/d) to 470 Mbbl/d and ultimately to 520 Mbbl/d, or about half of the region’s actual production.

Because the pipeline provides a safer and more economical option for transportation than crude by rail, Banda said he expects there will be opportunities to reduce breakeven prices for crude in the region. Crude-by-rail will not go away, he said, but neither will it rise to the levels of 2013-2014 again.

“Those days are gone,” Banda said.