Permian Basin crude oil flows to Houston extended their recovery in September (see blue line on the chart below), rebounding from the sharp decline in June — the lowest volume since September 2023 — according to the latest monthly data from the Texas Railroad Commission.
The June dip was driven by a planned 10-day maintenance event on the Wink-to-Webster (W2W) Pipeline. By September, volumes rose to 2.37 MMb/d, up 24 Mb/d from August, 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:
