With the U.S. government siding in favor of Native American protests against a key North Dakota pipeline, local oil producers and shippers are facing the possibility of greater delays in getting a quick route to ship oil to the Gulf of Mexico. On Friday, following ongoing protests from environmentalists and Native American tribes, the U.S. Justice Department asked operators of the Dakota Access pipeline to suspend construction along a 40-mile (64 km) stretch in North Dakota, just minutes after a U.S. district court said construction could resume. The 1,100-mile (1,770 km), $3.7 billion Dakota Access pipeline was originally expected to start up later this year, to deliver more than 470,000 barrels per day of crude from North Dakota’s prolific Bakken shale play through Illinois and toward refinery row in the U.S. Gulf Coast. Should the pipeline be delayed for a substantial period, it would affect producers who had counted […]