Don't Stop - ONEOK, MPLX Ramp Up Their Permian-to-Gulf Infrastructure, Sometimes in Tandem

Crude-oil-focused drilling and completion in the Permian Basin is generating fast-increasing volumes of associated gas — and creating opportunities for midstream companies that provide “wellhead-to-water” services for natural gas and NGLs. ONEOK has become a much bigger player in this space via several transformational acquisitions and MPLX has been making moves of its own. (The companies also are working together on a new LPG export terminal — and more.) In today’s RBN blog, we continue our review of Permian-to-Gulf midstreamers’ expansion plans with a look at what ONEOK and MPLX are up to.

This is the third blog in our series on the handful of companies that offer the full gamut of midstream services and thereby reap the benefits of operating with extraordinary efficiency, collecting fees from shippers each step of the way, and feeding pipelines, fractionators, storage and export terminals along the network’s value chain. In Part 1, we detailed plans by Enterprise Products Partners and Energy Transfer to build new gas processing plants, add NGL pipeline and fractionation capacity, and expand their already significant ability to export NGL purity products like propane and butanes. (Energy Transfer is also building a new, long-haul gas pipeline.) In Part 2, we examined the recently updated capex plans of Targa Resources and Phillips 66 (P66). Targa has a long list of projects planned, including five gas processing plants, an NGL pipeline (Delaware Express), new fractionators and expanded LPG export capacity, while P66 has been growing its midstream portfolio primarily through acquisitions (including Pinnacle Midstream and — later this year — EPIC NGL).

In today’s blog, we turn our attention to ONEOK and MPLX. ONEOK, like P66, has become a significant player in Permian-to-Gulf midstream infrastructure in large part by buying assets and entire companies. And, unlike the midstreamers that focus on processing and moving natural gas and NGLs (and exporting NGL purity products), it also transports, stores and exports Permian-sourced crude oil.