- Blog

Watching the Defections - Is New Permian Crude Pipeline Capacity Needed?

Last Friday (May 8, 2015), Baker Hughes data showed the Permian basin oil rig count up by two – suggesting that drilling may be picking up in West Texas. A week earlier at the end of April, Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) announced they are moving ahead with a new pipeline from the Permian basin to the Houston area – set to come online in 2017. The new pipeline will add 540 Mb/d of takeaway capacity and comes on top of 450 Mb/d being added in the Permian this year by the Plains All American Cactus and Energy Transfer Partners Permian Express II pipelines. Today we look at the new project and whether the incremental takeaway capacity is necessary.