The largest artery moving crude from the prolific Permian Basin to Cushing, OK, is Plains All American’s Basin Pipeline, one of the first long-haul pipelines out of Midland, TX. Basin gets help along the way from the complementary Sunrise Pipeline, and together they are responsible for moving large volumes from the Permian to Wichita Falls, TX. From there, the Basin pipe moves barrels all the way to Cushing, delivery point for the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures contract and home to massive commercial storage. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll dig into why Basin and Sunrise are so important to the Permian, Plains and Cushing.
RBN’s US Gulf Coast Crude Oil Infrastructure Map - is up-to-date and provides a clear and comprehensive view into North America’s most dynamic and important crude oil market landscape.
This is our most recent in a series of blogs highlighting Permian outbound long-haul crude oil pipelines. We’ve highlighted pipelines to Houston, Corpus Christi (Cactus I and II; Cactus III, formerly EPIC Crude; and Gray Oak) and Nederland (West Texas Gulf and Permian Express), including our recently published Drill Down Report. In today’s blog, the first in a mini-series on pipes going to Cushing, we’ll discuss the Basin and Sunrise pipelines. In an upcoming blog, we’ll dive into Centurion, which also delivers to Cushing.
The small town of Cushing occupies a central place in the U.S. crude oil market thanks to its hundreds of storage tanks and numerous pipeline connections, as shown in Figure 1 below. Cushing — the “Pipeline Crossroads of the World” — is never far from our hearts and minds here at RBN. A popular topic in the RBN blogosphere (see Give and Take, among others), Cushing is connected to several inbound pipelines from Western Canada, the Bakken, the Niobrara, the Permian and SCOOP/STACK, and is also linked to outbound pipes that deliver to inland refineries, Gulf Coast refineries and export terminals. The Oklahoma hub is also the delivery point for the CME/NYMEX futures contract for WTI — one of the most widely and actively traded physical commodity futures contracts in the world and the benchmark underpinning most physical U.S. crude oil purchase and sales contracts.
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About the song
“Tequila Sunrise” was written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey and appears as the fourth song on side one of the Eagles’ second studio album, Desperado. The song talks about a man reminiscing about a lost love while drinking tequila as the sun rises. It was one of the first songs Henley and Frey wrote together. Released as the first song from the album in April 1973, it went to #20 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary and #64 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles charts. Personnel on the record were: Glenn Frey (lead vocal, acoustic guitar), Don Henley (drums, maracas, backing vocals), Bernie Leadon (pedal steel guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar solos, backing vocals) and Randy Meisner (bass, backing vocals).
Desperado was recorded at Island Studios in London in February 1973 and produced by Glyn Johns. Released in April 1973, it went to #41 on the Billboard Hot 200 Albums chart and has been certified 2x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Two singles were released from the LP.
The Eagles are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1971 by Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner. They had played together as members of Linda Ronstadt’s touring band and played together on her third studio album, Linda Ronstadt, released in 1972. They signed to David Geffen’s new record label, Asylum Records, in 1972, and released their debut album, Eagles, the same year. They have released seven studio albums, three live albums, 10 compilation albums and 30 singles. They have had five #1 singles and six #1 albums. They have sold more than 200 million records worldwide. They have won five American Music Awards and six Grammy Awards, and are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Vocal Group Hall of Fame. The Eagles also have received Kennedy Center Honors and have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Nine members have passed through the band since its inception. They still perform with current members: Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit, Vince Gill and Duncan Frey. Glenn Frey died in New York City in January 2016 at 67. Randy Meisner died in Los Angeles in July 2023 at 77. The Eagles will be appearing at the Sphere in Las Vegas, from January through March 2026.
"About the Song" -- written by Mickey McMahan , RBN Director of Musicology
