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Dakota Access Pipeline Brown County Stockpile up for Auction August 15

The legals in this morning’s Aberdeen paper announce an auction of interest to blog readers and pipeliners:

Announcement of auction of 2000 segments of oil pipeline, Aberdeen American News, 2015.07.14, p. 4D
Announcement of auction of 2000 segments of oil pipeline, Aberdeen American News, 2015.07.14, p. 4D

On August 15, you can bid at auction on 2,000 sections of the Canadian steel pipeline stockpiled this spring six miles west of Aberdeen. The auction takes place at the Brown County Courthouse at 2 p.m. on Saturday August 15, at the height of the Brown County Fair. Just think: instead of coming home from the fair with a few yardsticks and a stuffed donkey, you could truck home your very own 80-foot-by-30-inch steel pipe, suitable for making the biggest darn spud gun in your county! Or you could buy the whole lot and build yourself a 30-mile pipeline.

The pipeline came by train to Brown County in preparation for construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, planned to carry Bakken oil across South Dakota to Illinois for refining. Those 2,000 links would equal over 130 train car loads; my eyeball-recollection of the trains rumbling through Aberdeen last March suggests that 2,000 links are only a fraction of the stockpile.

The legal notice says the auction is taking place under SDCL 44-14-3, which addresses satisfaction of liens in self-service storage facilities. It would appear that Dakota Access, Energy Transfer and/or steel manufacturer Evraz may have gotten behind on its rent to landowner Todd Ochsner, who is hosting the pipeline stockpile near his Concord Grain elevator. I’ve contacted Ochsner, who referred me to his attorney; I await that call back for more information. Stay tuned!

22 Comments

  1. Porter Lansing 2015-07-14 11:01

    It only looks like pipe. It’s really a symbol of conservative greed and selfishness.
    You Republicans had ONE job. One task, one direction and you lost each and every time. You tried to make OBAMA fail. You so wanted him to fail. After all, he’s never even had a real job. He’s “one of those”, you know. WELCOME TO LOSERVILLE, CONSERVATIVES ….. population YOU!!!

  2. Daniel Buresh 2015-07-14 11:52

    The dakota access pipeline is going to go through. They have encountered very few hurdles. I wonder if the pipe is no longer compliant or something of that nature and they are just cutting their losses. It needs to be done for bakken oil. Obama has failed on his own, and we will pay for those costs in the near future. Just ask Democrats who aren’t left-wing nut jobs, as Mike would put it. Obama failed them miserably, and Hilary will continue it. Loserville….”If liberals are so f—in’ smart, how come they lose so GODDAMN ALWAYS”

  3. mike from iowa 2015-07-14 12:10

    DB- Wisconsin wingnuts won 60 of 99 seats in the lege in 2012 despite garnering 168000 less votes because of…….wait for it……extremely partisan GERRY-freakin’-MANDERING!! Dems got nearly 5 million more votes than right wing nut jobs and yet nutjobs kept control of both houses of congress because of……wait for it……. extremely partisan GERRY-freakin’-MANDERING!! No need to cuss.

    Now if wingnuts can keep blocking minorities from voting they can perhaps appoint a new pope pretty pronto.

  4. Nick Nemec 2015-07-14 12:17

    I could use a couple of culverts.

  5. Carl Larson 2015-07-14 12:30

    The language on this sight has always been FAMILY FRIENDLY. If D B hates others so much he should find a sight that agrees with his narrow mind and approves of his language. Thanks for all you do, Corey. Grandpa Smurf

  6. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-07-14 12:57

    Nick, Brown County (and the landowner?) welcome your bid! Come on up!

    I’ve edited Daniel’s f-bomb, Carl. Sorry about that!

    Daniel, come now. You know that the best man or the best idea does not always win. The fact that liberals lose a battle does not mean they are stupid. It may mean they simply are fighting in a game in which, as Mike points out, their opponents have been able to rig the game, or where greed and selfish short-term thinking, as Porter suggests, beats out good sense and forward thinking.

    I have no evidence that the auction of the pipe has anything to do with a snarl in building the Dakota Access pipeline… although if the auction goes through, Dakota Access may have to get out the pipe stretcher. If there is any connection between this pipe auction and a delay in the pipeline, it may be that Dakota Access is simply responding to the decrease in global demand and that glorious dip in oil prices connected to the Iran nuclear deal… brought to us by that really successful President, Barack H. Obama. Yes, do, please, Blame Obama™.

  7. leslie 2015-07-14 13:20

    porter, meet daniel, our out-spoken young kno-it-all from the right.

    we raise our kids as republicans, racists and … daniel, did you say anything yet about the confederate flag arm patches on law enforcement uniforms in gettysburg sd?

    custer, youngest general (no field experience whatsoever), promoted by his “step-father” genl. pleasanton, was last in his class at westpoint, and lost 257men at gettysburg (highest calvary loss) in his self-described “brilliant” charge. at some point he fell from his horse and was rescued by a private. saved, custer was enabled to lose another some 250 men at the greasy grass. the town he appropriated from the lakota in “our beloved black hills (C)KOTA” in 1874 was primarily instrumental in shouting down an honorable lakota request to rename Harney Peak last month.

  8. Heidi Marttila-Losure 2015-07-14 14:53

    (Cory, did you know the quote with the f-bomb is a reference to the first episode of The Newsroom? If you haven’t watched The Newsroom, I HIGHLY recommend it. The initial speech by Jeff Daniels is one of the best television scenes ever. And the series gets better from there. Though I can’t watch it with the kids around–lots of f-bombs flying. Like a real newsroom, really.)

  9. Paul Seamans 2015-07-14 15:16

    Daniel Buresh, people like yourself have been saying for over seven years, since early spring, 2008, that the Keystone XL will be built. It has been a grassroots effort of what could be considered unlikely allies, along with the support of the big greens, that has the Keystone XL on the verge of being stopped and being remembered as nothing more than a bad idea. The days of citizens rolling over for the big corporations are no more.
    P.S. If those interested in buying pipe can hold off for awhile I think you might be able to get a better deal on 36″ pipe stored by TransCanada in a yard near Gascoyne, ND.

  10. jana 2015-07-14 16:36

    So these pipeline guys can’t make good on their storage of pipe, but yet we are to trust they’ll make good on a multi-million dollar clean up on an inevitable leak?

    Sorry Dakota Access, your credibility just went bankrupt.

    Not to mention if their ethics run that shallow in paying a small SD business, can you imagine what they are like with the big stuff?

  11. El Rayo X 2015-07-14 16:45

    Nick, before you bid on 30 miles of culvert, make sure this isn’t a Hutterite sell somebody else’s property scam. This is Brown County you know.

  12. Porter Lansing 2015-07-14 18:31

    @Mr. Buresh ….. thank-you for your comments. I’ll be happy to answer your question. ….”If liberals are so smart, how come they lose so ALWAYS?”
    ~ “In SD liberals DO lose a lot. They lose way more than the thinking of the voters should reflect at the polls. One reason is that the word “conservative” is too often used by liberals as an adjective instead of a noun. Being conservative is natural in many things. It means “to not waste” and to “be prepared”. Being “a” conservative is a very harmful thing. It means being greedy and selfish. The way to change this ….. recognize, label and ridicule Conservatives at every opportunity. Extremist Republican overreach CAN be mitigated with this centuries old technique.” Mr. Buresh, “Selfishness isn’t wanting the world to be your way. Selfishness is wanting someone else’s world to be your way.”

  13. bret clanton 2015-07-14 20:33

    It would appear Dakota Access is a little behind on rent….that will need to be addressed at the PUC….

  14. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-07-14 21:52

    Bret, is there any chance Dakota Access is going to turn out to be another Hyperion, big Texas dreamers without the scratch to make the deal go through? Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company, has experience and capital, right?

  15. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-07-14 22:03

    (Heidi, thanks for the context! Evidently I should add The Newsroom to my Netflix queue. :-) ).

  16. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-07-14 22:21

    Say, Nick, do you have enough tractor to move one of these pipe sections? The PUC applications says the pipe steel will be 0.429 inch or 0.625 inch, with diameters of 30 inches. If I’m reading this pipe chart correctly, an 80-foot section of the thinner pipe will weigh about 10,800 pounds; 80 feet of the thicker pipe could weigh almost 16,000 pounds.

    And now I can’t help myself: the 271.6 miles of the pipeline planned for South Dakota will weigh between 194,000,000 and 280,000,000 pounds, or between 97,000 and 140,000 tons. Compare: if the average weight of a North American is 178 pounds, then 850,000 South Dakotans weigh about 76,000 tons… less than our chunk of the Dakota Access pipeline.

    Whoever comes to the auction had better bring more than a truck and a skidsteer.

  17. caheidelberger Post author | 2015-07-14 22:29

    Paul, are the KXL segments 80 feet as well?

    And while I’m thinking of it, who would be in the market for just 30 miles of this pipe? What’s the going price for pipe this size?

  18. bret clanton 2015-07-14 22:56

    I cannot fathom why they would not be up to date on rent payments on this pipeyard. It does make one wonder. KXL segments are 80 foot long by 36 inches…

  19. Jon D 2015-07-15 20:50

    Drop the mic jana! How very well, simply and succinctly put.

  20. barry freed 2015-07-17 08:48

    With the amount money involved with that much pipe, it is most likely a tax scheme.

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