BISMARCK — North Dakota officials awarded a decade-long, $500 million financial guarantee to one of the state's largest companies for a natural gas pipeline project proposed to cross the state.

Officials on the state Industrial Commission — made up of the governor, attorney general and agricultural commissioner — committed to purchasing $500 million worth of space, or $50 million a year, on the Bakken East Pipeline proposed by WBI Energy, a subsidiary of Bismarck-based MDU Resources Group.

Funds come from a line of credit that the North Dakota Pipeline Authority takes out from the state-owned Bank of North Dakota — both are overseen by the Industrial Commission.

The pipeline would ship natural gas from the Bakken oil fields in western North Dakota to the central and eastern parts of the

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