Beaumont

Energy Transfer stitched together its Permian Express system over multiple years and it’s now a standout in the company’s midstream portfolio, able to carry 600 Mb/d of Permian crude to Nederland, TX.

Energy Transfer has built one of the largest crude oil midstream portfolios in the U.S., yet one of its most important assets — the West Texas Gulf Pipeline — often flies under the radar. The 72-years-young line is still a workhorse, moving crude from the Permian Basin to Longview and Nederland, TX, where it feeds into Energy Transfer’s massive Gulf Coast export hub. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll look at West Texas Gulf and how it fits into Energy Transfer’s broader midstream strategy.

The Wink to Webster Pipeline, operated by ExxonMobil, stands out as the largest crude oil pipeline by capacity exiting the prolific Permian Basin in West Texas. What makes it even more of a midstream icon is the company’s hands-on management of the entire process, from the production well to the long-haul run to delivery to ExxonMobil’s refineries. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll examine Wink to Webster’s complicated ownership structure, how it connects directly to terminals run by its owners and its destination flexibility. 

As crude oil pipelines from the Permian to the Gulf Coast edge closer to full utilization, it’s becoming a challenge for producers and shippers alike. Amid this capacity crunch, converting Enterprise’s Midland to ECHO 2 (M2E-2) pipeline back to crude oil service can’t come quickly enough. In today’s RBN blog — the latest in our series on Permian crude oil pipelines — we discuss Enterprise’s crude oil footprint from West Texas to Houston. 

More than 15 years into the Shale Era, the U.S. refining sector’s response to burgeoning production of light, sweet crude oil continues. Earlier this month, Chevron completed the long-planned, $400 million renovation and expansion of the century-old refinery in Pasadena, TX, which the company acquired from Petrobras in 2019. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the refinery’s extensive history, why Chevron bought the facility five years ago, and how the just-finished project will enable the integrated oil and gas giant to make fuller use of its Permian oil bounty. 

For a few years now, crude oil shippers out of the Permian have enjoyed a surplus in pipeline takeaway capacity thanks to a slew of new pipes that came online just as COVID crushed demand, prices and production. But Permian production has recovered, and the takeaway situation is changing for some routes. For example, the pipelines from West Texas to Corpus Christi are running close to full, and if a new offshore export terminal gets built, Permian-to-Gulf-Coast takeaway dynamics would get far more complicated — and fast. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss highlights from our new Drill Down Report, which examines Permian crude flows to existing export terminals and the potential impacts of a new deepwater facility. 

The Nederland/Beaumont crude oil hub has been somewhat overshadowed recently by other Gulf Coast crude export hubs despite hosting America’s largest refinery, a handful of export terminals and pipeline links to the prolific Permian Basin. But while plans to build one or more deepwater crude export terminals could mean big changes for the Gulf Coast hubs, the Nederland/Beaumont area isn’t standing still. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss what’s ahead for the region and its emergence as a leader in NGL exports. 

For several years now, almost all the Permian’s incremental crude oil production has moved to export markets along the Gulf Coast. Due to new pipeline capacity and shipping cost advantages, Corpus Christi has enjoyed a disproportionate share of those volumes. But the market is shifting. Pipelines to Corpus are filling up, and that is pushing more oil to Houston for export — and to Beaumont for ExxonMobil’s new 250-Mb/d refinery expansion. Unless the pipes to Corpus expand their capacity, much more oil supply will be targeting Houston, with important implications for pipeline capacity, dock capacity, and regional price differentials. In today’s RBN blog, we explore these issues and what could throw a curveball into the whole Gulf Coast crude oil market.

It’s possible for a single new infrastructure project to be a game-changer — the Transcontinental Railroad comes to mind, and so do the New York City subway system and the Hoover Dam. In the energy industry’s midstream sector, things work a little differently. There, projects are incremental. They’re privately, rather than publicly backed and so they must be commercially justified, which means they need to serve a specific purpose. That’s not to say they can’t shift the landscape of the areas they serve. For example, when the Shale Revolution transformed and disrupted U.S. hydrocarbon markets, supply and demand dynamics were turned on their head and waves of projects had to be built to handle surging production in suddenly supercharged shale plays like the Bakken, Appalachia, and Permian and to serve new markets, most notably exports. Sometimes, it’s a more complicated combination of projects and events that, as a group, cause not-so-subtle shifts in how things are done. Lately, handfuls of pipeline projects and refinery closures — plus increasing regional crude oil production in both the U.S. and Canada — have spurred changes in traditional pipeline-flow patterns and may breathe new life into oil-export activity at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port and the Beaumont-Nederland area in Texas. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss these changes and their effects.