Blueknight Energy Partners

Crude oil production growth in Oklahoma over the past two years has been so rapid that apparently the State of Oklahoma “misplaced” (under-reported?) as much as 100 Mb/d of output according to a recent Energy Information Administration (EIA) report. Whatever the true production numbers a couple of central Oklahoma plays continue to attract new drilling and infrastructure investment in the face of the oil price meltdown. Today we describe new infrastructure in the region.

Blueknight Energy Partners’ 100 Mb/d Knight Warrior pipeline is currently under construction and due online in Q2 2016 to deliver crude from the developing Eaglebine play to the Houston Ship Channel. It complements the 60 Mb/d Sunoco Logistics Eaglebine Express pipeline to Nederland, TX that opened last December. Today we discuss how the promising but relatively complex nature of Eaglebine drilling could scare off producers until prices move substantially higher than today’s levels.

Located just east of the prolific Eagle Ford shale, production from the Eaglebine play has yet to take off. In good part that is because takeaway capacity is currently limited to trucks. All that is about to change with the new 60 Mb/d Sunoco Logistics Eaglebine Express pipeline due online by the end of 2014. And last month two midstream companies announced competing pipeline projects that would add as much as another 400 Mb/d of takeaway capacity in 2016. Today we review recent developments in the Eaglebine basin.

No fewer than 28 publically listed companies are currently drilling in the Permian Basin – including industry stalwarts like Occidental Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and Shell as well as independent producers like EOG Resources, Pioneer Natural Resources, Concho Resources and Apache. Overall crude production is over 1.5 MMb/d and headed to 1.7 MMb/d by the end of 2014. Current hot spots include the Wolfcamp horizontal shale play in the Midland Basin – featured in our latest Drill Down Report. Today we look at new gathering systems in the Midland that will transport up to 490 Mb/d of crude to Crane and Colorado City, TX.