The Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe and Enbridge Energy Partners have reached an agreement that clears the way for a new oil pipeline to cross reservation land. The deal will see Enbridge pay the band for the rights to cross the reservation. The agreement follows a stalemate between the two parties after the state Public Utilities Commission’s approval last year of the pipeline route from Clearbook in NW Minnesota to Superior. The Houston-based pipeline company had asked the PUC for a 21mi detour around the reservation to avoid the roughly 11mi crossing. The USD 1.2 billion US segment of the pipeline is part of an USD 8 billion system expansion that will bring oil from Alberta into the US through Minnesota into Wisconsin. From Superior, the oil could either be refined at the Murphy Oil facility or piped another 450mi to Illinois on another leg of the pipeline.