ALBERTA, CANADA (Commodity Online): Canadian pipeline giant Enbridge inked a deal with Norway's Statoil to ship hydrocarbons from Alberta oil sands to main regional hubs at Edmonton and Hardisty.

Patrick Daniel, the president and chief executive at Enbridge, said the deal was a major expansion to his company's pipeline portfolio for oil sands.

Statoil expects to ship oil sands from the Leismer project in the Athabasca region of Alberta in late 2011. The shipping contract envisions the delivery of 30,000 barrels per day from Enbridge's Waupisoo line for a 10-year period.

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"The Alberta oil sands provide a secure, reliable source of Canadian crude oil for Canadian and U.S. markets, and Enbridge is uniquely positioned to provide transportation solutions to connect growing production from Western Canada to key Eastern Canadian and U.S. Midwest markets and beyond," said Daniel.

Enbridge said it may need more revenue to add capacity to the network, adding more contracts are needed to handle all of the production from the Leismer project.

The Statoil deal is the sixth such contract for regional oil sand projects for Enbridge.(EUNewsNet.com and OfficialWire)