Crude Oil Pipeline Gathering Systems In The Permian -- RBN Energy -- July 30, 2019

To get a feeling of how big the Permian is going to be, consider this.

Quick: name the crude oil gathering systems in the Bakken. I consider myself fairly well-read with regard to the Bakken but I can't name may pipeline systems.

A reader mentioned that some time ago, also, complaining that the industry was not addressing the pipeline shortage in the Bakken. RBN Energy has recently had two posts on this subject.

On the other hand, let's run though the crude oil pipelines that RBN Energy has highlighted so far.

• Brazos
• EagleClaw Midstream: 150 miles of pipeline; 90,000 bbls crude oil storage; key connections to regional pipeline systems
• NuStar Energy: entered the Permian two years ago with the acquisition of Navigator Energy Services' 520-mile system in Midland; has since added 350 miles of new pipeline; tripled the volume of crude oil transport
• EnLink Midstream's Greater Chickadee in the Midland and its Avenger system in the Delaware
• MPLX
• 3 Bear Energy's Hat Mesa oil Gathering System, 200 miles and small trunk lines in the northern Delaware Basin
• Oryx Midstream Services' 860-mile Oryx Trans-Permian system
• Delaware Basin's Stateline are: a joint venture of WPX Energy and Howard Energy Partners 
• Delek US, Midland, to Delek's Big Spring, TX, refinery
• Medallion Mistream's fast-growing, 1,000-mile system; 116-mile Delaware Express system in the southern Delaware
• San Mateo Midstream's system in the Delaware Basin; one in Eddy County; one in Loving County, TX; company's plan for two new systems in New Mexico
• Reliance Gathering's 185,000 bopd pipeline network; Midland; 
• the Beta Crude Connector: a 100-mile+; 150,000 bopd system: joint venture between Concho and Frontier Energy Services; Midland Basin

Later, I will list the pipeline systems in the Bakken that RBN Energy is highlighting.

This was an interesting data point from today's RBN Energy post:

Now, on to Brazos Midstream. The Fort Worth, TX-based company got its start in April 2015, by which time crude oil prices had slid by more than half (to less than $50/bbl) from their mid-2014 highs.

With financial backing from Old Ironsides Energy, a then-new private equity firm, Brazos quickly determined that the Permian (and more specifically the southern Delaware Basin in West Texas) would offer the best midstream development opportunities, and concentrated its efforts there. The move proved to be prescient.

Thanks to producers’ success in “cracking the code” in the Wolfcamp, Bone Spring and other hydrocarbon-rich formations, the Permian turned out to be the only crude-focused shale play where production actually increased during the mid-decade downturn in crude prices — the new wells also generated large volumes of associated gas, much of it rich in NGLs.

Soon after Brazos’s launch, the company partnered with Jetta Operating Co. to build out and upgrade its small crude and gas gathering system in Ward and Reeves counties. By April 2017, Brazos had 35 miles of crude gathering pipelines and two crude storage terminals (Bison and Cross V) with a combined capacity of 50 Mbbl, as well as about 150 miles of gas gathering pipelines and a 60-MMcf/d gas processing plant (Comanche I, in eastern Reeves County). That month, Brazos entered into an important gas processing contract with Diamondback Energy for the roughly 100,000 gross acres Diamondback had recently acquired from Brigham Resources in Reeves and Pecos counties. This contract helped underwrite the development of a new 200-MMcf/d processing plant (Comanche II) right next door.

Much, much more about Brazos at the link.