The “Dakota Access” Pipeline (DAPL) is a $3.8B, 1,100 mile fracked-oil pipeline currently under construction from the Bakken shale fields of North Dakota to Peoria, Illinois. DAPL is slated to cross Lakota Treaty Territory at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation where it would be laid underneath the Missouri River, the longest river on the continent.
Construction of the DAPL would engender a renewed fracking-frenzy in the Bakken shale region, as well as endanger a source of fresh water for the Standing Rock Sioux and 8 million people living downstream. DAPL would also impact many sites that are sacred to the Standing Rock Sioux and other indigenous nations.
The DAPL is a massive project being organized by a shady group of the world’s largest fossil-fuel companies and banks. They have offices in cities around the world. Putting direct, nonviolent pressure on the corporations building and funding this project is critical for supporting frontline resistance to DAPL
Companies Behind DAPL
The Dakota Access Pipeline is a project being proposed by a collection of pipeline companies, with a complicated and intertwining structure:
- Energy Transfer Partners and their wholly-owned subsidiary Sunoco Logistics own a 38.25% stake in the project
- Enbridge owns a 27.6% stake
- Phillips 66 owns a 25% stake
- Marathon owns a 9.1% stake
Banks Funding DAPL
The companies building DAPL were able to secure a $2.5 billion loan from a collection of banks to build the pipeline. But the pipeline companies can only access $1.1 billion of this loan until certain progress is made on the pipeline project. Three of the main lenders are Citigroup, TD Securities and Mizuho Bank.
Here is a full list of the banks on this loan:
Other Institution Behind DAPL
The contractor actually building the pipeline is Michels Corporation, an international company that has worked on several other controversial projects including the Southern Leg of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Fredrikson & Byron, Gibson and Dunn & Crutcher are two of the law firms that are representing DAPL. G4S is one of the security companies that has been hired to suppress peaceful water protectors in North Dakota. G4S had been supporting Israel’s occupation of Palestine, before withdrawing from Israel after an international boycott campaign. Frost Kennels is the company that unleashed attack dogs on water protectors in North Dakota in September.
