Operators Will Reverse Flow of the Nation's Largest Pipeline

This is really, really cool (for me personally -- connecting dots of earlier posts).

First, this link, "diluent central", posted September 14, 2012:

Capline:

• tracks the Mississippi River from Louisiana to Patoka, IL
• largest continental US pipeline
• at 1/6th capacity; only pumping every other day due to glut from north
• if Utica shale pans out; under-utilization even worse
• shipping diluent back to Canada from as far away as the Eagle Ford
• Eagle Ford --> St James --> Capline --> Southern Lights (Enbridge)--> Alberta (Rusty Braziel, RBN Energy)
• considering increasing the flow of diluent to fill its empty pipes
• Capline had planned to reverse its north-south pipeline to south-north, BUT a reversal less likely now that Enbridge/EPD said they would double capacity of the competing Seaway Pipeline

That was then: the decision to reverse the flow of the nation's largest pipeline is now.

Now, over the weekend: the decision to reverse the flow:

Independent oil refiner and marketer Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) is planning to reverse the Capline pipeline to transport oil from the Midwest to the Gulf Coast refining belt. The reversal will help in draining the excess crude oil from increased drilling in the Midcontinent.

The 1.2 million barrel-a-day Capline pipeline is currently operated by Shell Pipeline, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS.A). Marathon owns 32.6% of the same and at present, the pipeline delivers crude oil from Louisiana to Illinois.

Marathon is expected to start operating the 630-mile pipeline from Sep 2013. Other details of the deal are yet to be disclosed by the company.

This will be the second key pipeline reversal following the Seaway pipeline. Enbridge Inc. and Enterprise Products Partners have plans to convert the Seaway pipeline in a month and increase its capacity to 400,000 barrels a day by 2013.

The second linked article is dated February 1, 2013. I thought the Seaway had already been converted; but a delay in expanding the capacity to 400,000 bbls to 4Q13. Time will tell.