Permian Basin crude oil flows to Houston extended their recovery in October 2024, rebounding from the sharp decline in June — the lowest volume since September 2023 (see blue line on the chart below). The June dip was driven by a planned 10-day maintenance event on the Wink-to-Webster (W2W) Pipeline. By October, volumes rose to 2.45 MMb/d, up 823 Mb/d from September, though still trailing the 2.55 MMb/d average recorded during the first five months of 2024.
With pipelines to Corpus Christi operating at near-full capacity, Houston has increasingly absorbed much of the incremental growth in Permian production. However, this trajectory was temporarily disrupted in June when W2W underwent maintenance to reroute a small segment of the line.
Currently, four pipelines serve as routes for Permian crude bound for Houston:
- W2W: 1.5 MMb/d capacity, of which Midland-to-ECHO 3 (M2E-3) makes up 450 Mb/d representing Enterprise’s undivided interest)
- Midland-to-ECHO 1 (M2E-1): 620 Mb/d capacity
- BridgeTex: 440 Mb/d capacity
- Longhorn: 275 Mb/d capacity
In October, all Houston-bound oil pipelines from the Permian either held steady or increased compared to the prior month, with BridgeTex and M2E1 accounting for most of the gain, rising by 63 Mb/d and 18 Mb/d, respectively.
