The crude oil hub at Cushing, OK, has more than 90 MMbbl of tankage, 3.7 MMb/d of incoming pipeline capacity and 3.1 MMb/d of outbound pipes. That’s an impressive amount of infrastructure by any standard. The real marvel of the place, though, is the variety of important roles it plays and services it provides for a wide range of market participants — producers, midstream companies, refiners and marketers, as well as producer/marketer and refiner/marketer hybrids. To truly understand Cushing — what it does and how it works — you need to know the hub’s assets and how they fit together. Today, we continue a series on the “Pipeline Crossroads of the World” with a look at the companies that own Cushing storage capacity and how that storage is put to use.
Canadian crude output is rising, requiring new export routes. As traditional pathways face constraints, the U.S. Rockies—especially the Guernsey, WY hub—are emerging as key corridors for moving Canadian heavy crude to downstream markets, including the Gulf Coast.
This is the second episode of a multi-part review of the Cushing hub, whose infrastructure, key players and operations RBN has been researching and analyzing for the past several months. As we discussed in Part 1, Cushing’s role in the crude market has been in flux. Permian oil production has been surging, the ban on U.S. oil exports is a fading memory, and the Gulf Coast — not Cushing — is where most U.S. crude production wants to go, for its concentration of refineries and export docks. But while Cushing’s role has been morphing as the Shale Revolution plays out, it still provides critical support to producers, midstreamers, refiners and marketers. To put it bluntly, crude-market participants need Cushing, and it’s here to stay.
So what exactly is in Cushing? Who owns it? Who uses it? And what do they use it for? We’ll start with storage — the real “hub” of the hub — and get to the “spokes” (the pipelines in and out of Cushing) later. Cushing-area storage facilities cover almost 5,000 acres and include about 350 huge, aboveground storage tanks, some of which are capable of holding up to 600 Mbbl. There are actually two centers of storage capacity at Cushing: a much larger group of contiguous storage facilities in Cushing South (dashed yellow rectangle in Figure 1) and a smaller, more scattered group of storage assets in Cushing North (dashed red rectangle). The town of Cushing is in the middle (dashed blue rectangle).
Join Backstage Pass to Read Full Article
About the song
“Oklahoma Swing” was a 1990 hit single for Oklahoma-born country music stars Vince Gill and Reba McEntire. Written by Gill and Tim DuBois, the song was the second single from Gill’s third album, When I Call Your Name, and reached #13 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. The LP was recorded at Emerald Studios in Nashville in early 1989, with Tony Brown producing. When I Call Your Name went to #2 on the Billboard Country Albums chart, and #67 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart after its release in November 1989.
Vince Gill has recorded 20 studio albums, has charted over 40 singles on the U.S. Billboard charts, and has sold over 26 million albums worldwide to date. He still tours as a solo artist, and as a member of The Eagles. Reba McEntire has recorded 31 studio albums, has had 42 #1 singles on the U.S. Billboard charts, and has sold over 95 million records worldwide to date. She still tours as a solo artist.
