Bureau of Indian Affairs orders pipeline company to pay $187 million for trespassing

Mark Fox, center, serves as the chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation.


The Bureau of Indian Affairs has ordered a pipeline company to pay $187 million for trespassing on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota, Buffalo's Fire reports.

Tesoro High Plains Pipeline Company LLC failed to secure permission from the owners of land, Jodi Rave writes in the report. Most of the tracts are owned by individual Indians though some portions are also owned by the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation.

“The BIA has determined that a pipeline owned and utilized by Andeavor/Tesoro Pipeline is encroaching on trust lands without an approved right of way, resulting in trespass,” Great Plains Regional Director Timothy LaPointe wrote in the July 2 determination, Rave reports.

Rave owns an undivided interest in two tracts of land being used by Tesoro's oil pipeline. The company has been using the property without permission since June 2013, she wrote.

The BIA's order requires payment within 30 days.