Enbridge takes big profit hit on Sandpiper exit

Due to the cancellation of its controversial Sandpiper pipeline in Minnesota, Enbridge Energy Partners L.P. on Monday posted a $406 million net loss in its third quarter.

Enbridge wrote down about $757 million in assets associated with Sandpiper, a $2.6 billion pipeline that would have transported North Dakota crude oil across northern Minnesota to Superior, Wis. The write-off led to a $489 million direct hit to Enbridge Energy Partners' profits.

In September, the company pulled the plug on Sandpiper, which was mired in Minnesota's regulatory process and under fire from environmentalists and Native American groups. The 610-mile pipeline would have passed through pristine Minnesota waters, including wild rice lakes.

A month before the Sandpiper scuttling, Enbridge partnered with Marathon Petroleum to buy a $1.5 billion stake in a pipeline system that includes the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Dakota Access, which itself has come under fire in recent months from Native Americans and environmentalists, will move oil from North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to Illinois. It is 87 percent completed, and is expected to be finished by year's end.