For years, the South Texas NGL market was a world of its own — a self-contained liquids ecosystem centered around the refineries and petrochemical plants in the Corpus Christi area. But that all changed about six years ago when EPIC Midstream built a new NGL pipeline from the Permian into Corpus and a new fractionator to process those liquids. Corpus morphed into a vibrant NGL market in its own right. But nothing with South Texas NGLs is easy. Before the EPIC system was even up and running, a consortium calling itself BANGL — short for Belvieu Alternative NGL — announced another pipeline to compete for Permian NGLs that would parallel EPIC’s route out of the Permian, but then make a hard left toward Sweeny and Texas City, setting up a battle of the pipes for Permian NGLs.
However, just before construction of BANGL was expected to begin, COVID hit, demand for new NGL capacity out of the Permian slumped, and the two competing projects took the unusual step to throw in together in a highly creative arrangement that would keep the separate projects on track while sharing physical pipeline infrastructure. It worked, at least for a while. But today, a new BANGL pipeline is under construction, and more are in the works. No doubt these developments will again upend the South Texas NGL market. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll review what got us to this point, what is likely to happen as new pipeline capacity comes online, and what it all means for the competition for NGL barrels headed to non-Mont Belvieu destinations.
(Note: Shifting NGL flows and their significance will be an important topic at RBN’s upcoming School of Energy on June 26-27 in Houston. For more information about the two-day conference, click here.)
EPIC and BANGL Origins
Let’s start at the beginning. What is now called EPIC Midstream was formed in 2017 as EPIC Consolidated Operations LLC, a development entity backed by the private equity group Ares Management LP, to build, own and operate midstream infrastructure in the Permian and Eagle Ford basins. EPIC began construction on its namesake 700-mile, 24-inch-diameter Y-grade pipeline (teal, blue and light green segments in Figure 1 below) in December 2017 when BP signed an agreement to anchor the NGL artery that would link the Delaware, Midland and Eagle Ford basins to EPIC’s proposed fractionation hub in Robstown (green diamond) near Corpus Christi.
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About the song
“Strange Bedfellows” was written by John Cooper Clarke, Martin Hannett and Steve Hopkins. It appears as the fourth track on John Cooper Clarke’s second studio album, Disguise in Love. Clarke’s poem seems to be a be-bop Dadaistic paean to life on the road. Personnel on the record were: John Cooper Clarke (vocals), Martin Hannett (bass, synthesizer), Steve Hopkins (keyboards, synthesizer), Paul Burgess (drums, percussion), and Pete Shelley, Lyn Oakey (guitars).
Disguise in Love was recorded in May 1978 at Arrow Studios in Manchester, England, with the tracks, “Psycle Sluts 1&2” and “Salome Maloney” being live recordings from the Ritz Ballroom in Manchester, also in May 1978. Clarke’s band, The Invisible Girls, backed him on the studio tracks. The album was produced by Martin Hannett and released on Epic Records in October 1978. One single was released from the LP.
John Cooper Clarke is an English performance poet and comedian who styled himself as a “punk poet” in the late 1970s. His inspirations include Sir Henry Newbolt, Shakespeare, Jack Kerouac, Bob Dylan and Pam Ayres. He has opened concerts for such artists as the Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, Siouxie and the Banshees, Elvis Costello and New Order. The British press named him “the Bard of Salford” and Clarke refers to himself as “Johnny Clarke, the man behind the hairstyle.” With more than a nod to 1950s American comedian Lord Buckley, Clarke projects an image drawn from a cartoon interpretation of mid-1960s Bob Dylan with Ray Ban sunglasses, bigger hair and tighter trousers. Clarke, in his pronounced Salford accent, delivers rhythmic blasts of poetry that draw the listener into the vortex of his own personal madness and humor. He has released seven studio albums, one EP and seven singles as well as four collections of poetry and a novel. Clarke continues to record and tour and will be performing several dates in Europe beginning in May.
