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A status report from the contested Dakota Access Pipeline says it has completed the pilot hole for its horizontal drill under the Missouri River and the pipeline will be ready to flow oil as early as March 6.

The company filed the information in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to comply with a federal court order for weekly updates on the pipeline’s status while litigation with the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes continues.

The first status report, filed Monday, says the pilot hole that stretches 7,500 feet from one side of the Missouri River/Lake Oahe just north of Standing Rock is being reamed to accept the 30-inch-diameter pipe.

Even as the $3.8 billion pipeline from North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields to Illinois nears completion, the pipeline’s future is in question in federal court. The tribes’ attorney, Jan Hasselman, said he was surprised by the early oil-flow date, since the company told the court its best-case scenario was further out, into May.

Hasselman, on behalf of the tribes, wants Judge James E. Boasberg to issue a summary judgement in the case filed against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after it issued a general permit for the pipeline crossing in July.