Port Arthur

ARM Energy Holdings has reached a final investment decision for the 2.5-Bcf/d Mustang Express Pipeline, which will support Sempra Infrastructure’s Port Arthur LNG Phase 2, the latest of several major LNG projects in the Sabine River area to reach FID. The pipeline is intended to act as a regional header system with a route designed to offer maximum optionality and connectivity. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll discuss what the pipeline could mean for regional gas flows.

As new crude oil pipeline capacity to the Gulf Coast comes online, a growing disconnect is developing between the surplus crude volumes available for export and the actual export capacity at coastal terminals, particularly projects that would accommodate the more economical and efficient Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC). This is especially true in the Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX, area, where the relatively shallow depth of the Sabine Neches Waterway limits vessels to Aframax-class ships or partially loaded Suezmax tankers. If planned pipeline expansions into the BPA region over the next two years are completed, over 1 MMb/d of additional crude exports would need to leave BPA terminals to balance the market. Today, we look at current and future export capacity out of BPA.

Last week Hurricane Harvey roiled the entire energy complex, with NGL markets suffering substantial disruption — curtailed natural gas liquids production from gas processing in the Eagle Ford and other basins, reduced operating rates at Mont Belvieu and other fractionation sites, shuttered LPG and ethane export docks, widespread refinery closures and a virtual shutdown of Gulf Coast petrochemical plants. While little major damage to facilities has been reported and several plants are now restarting, operating conditions continue to be extremely difficult for both the supply and demand sides of the market. Today we continue our look at how high winds and days of torrential rain affected the U.S. energy industry, this time focusing on NGLs.

Last week (February 19, 2015) Enterprise Product Partners announced the start of line fill on their 780 Mb/d ECHO to Beaumont/Port Arthur pipeline. The new route will open access for Canadian heavy crude shippers on the recently completed Seaway Twin pipeline from Cushing to Houston to 1.5 MMb/d of refining capacity in Beaumont/Port Arthur including 0.3 MMb/d of heavy crude coker processing. These refineries were a key target of the Keystone-XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast that still awaits approval. Today we look at demand and competition for Canadian heavy crude on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Gulf Coast crude storage is at record levels and looks set to continue growing as new pipeline capacity opens up later this year from Cushing and the Permian Basin. At Magellan’s Analyst Day presentation last week (April 9, 2014) the company said that demand for crude storage at all locations remains strong with average utilization of 97 percent plus. OilTanking say their Houston crude storage is 99.1 percent contracted. Today we ponder where Gulf Coast crude stocks are located.

So far in 2013 around 645 Mb/d of new crude oil pipeline capacity has opened up to ship supplies to the Texas Gulf Coast. Early this month (December) line fill starts on the largest new capacity addition to date – the 700 Mb/d Keystone Gulf Coast Pipeline. The new pipeline runs from Cushing to Port Arthur and will carry mostly Canadian heavy crude. Today we wonder if all that crude will find a home.

The first episode in this series described 4 MMb/d of current and planned expansions to crude transportation capacity into the Texas Gulf Coast region (see Handling The Texas Gulf Coast Crude Flood). Our analysis showed that the new incoming light crude capacity will exceed Texas Gulf Coast demand by somewhere north of 0.5 MMb/d by the end of 2015. In episode two we described how some of these excess crude supplies would move east on the reversed Ho-Ho pipeline (see Gulf Coast Crude West to East Flows). In episode three we looked at how shippers could divert supplies away from Texas Gulf Coast congestion (see Texas Gulf Coast Bypass Options). This time we consider the impact of the Keystone Gulf Coast pipeline.

One of the more confusing features of the Keystone Gulf Coast Pipeline is what to call it – the name seems to change in real time. That is probably due to a desire to disassociate the southern Gulf Coast section of the pipeline from delays in permitting the Canada to US Keystone XL pipeline. Owner and operator TransCanada most recently set up a subsidiary to operate the pipeline called Marketlink LLC and it should now apparently more properly be called the Cushing Marketlink Pipeline so we will go with CMP as an abbreviation.

The 36-inch-diameter CMP runs 485 miles from Cushing, OK, to Nederland, TX (see green line on the map below). The line will have an initial capacity of 700 Mb/d with the option to expand to 830 Mb/d. It is almost ready to commence operations but before that can happen it has to be filled with oil – a process known as “line fill”. We described how line fill works and provided a formula to approximate the volume of oil required back in May 2012 (see A Time for Gas A Time For Crude – Part 2). According to that formula CMP requires 3.5 MMBbl of line fill. Marketlink LLC has said the first pipeline deliveries will be made before the end of 2013. The company is also constructing a 48-mile Houston Lateral pipeline (orange line on the map) that will run from the Liberty pumping station to East Houston and should be online by the end of 2014 with 130 Mb/d capacity.

The initial destination of the CMP is the Sunoco Logistics (part of Energy Transfer Partners) Nederland terminal. We have covered the Nederland terminal in two previous blog posts (see Nederland Crude Wonderland and Nederland Crude Volume Surges). The terminal is located on the Sabine-Neches waterway between Beaumont and Port Arthur, TX and has 22 MMBbl of storage capacity (see map below). The location is in the heart of Beaumont/Port Arthur refining country – home to four large refineries owned by ExxonMobil (Beaumont, 365 Mb/d), Valero (Port Arthur, 310 Mb/d), Total (Port Arthur, 174 Mb/d) and Shell/Saudi Aramco (Motiva 600 Mb/d). The Sabine Neches Waterway connects to the Gulf of Mexico, providing waterborne access to the entire Gulf Coast region. Nederland is about 100 miles East of Houston and 350 miles West of New Orleans.

As we move toward the end of 2013, all eyes in the crude market will focus on the Texas Gulf Coast as a flood of over 1 MMBbl of new crude supplies arrives via pipeline. In anticipation of that bonanza, Oil Tanking Partners (OTP) are in the process of adding 7 MMBbl of crude storage capacity at their Houston Ship Channel terminal and looking to expand their Beaumont capacity. OTP is also benefiting by leasing dock space for propane exports. Today we look at OTP’s ongoing preparations for the flood.

Crude oil throughput volumes at Sunoco Logistics’ Nederland Terminal on the Texas Gulf Coast increased by 35 percent from 690 Mb/d in Q2 2012 to 932 Mb/d in Q2 2013 – that’s nearly a million barrels a day! (Source: Sunoco Logistics earnings call). By the end of 2014 another 1 MMb/d of crude will be flowing through Nederland, as it becomes a pivotal storage and distribution terminal for Gulf Coast refineries. Today we describe Nederland’s growing crude advantages. 

The latest available Energy Information Administration (EIA) data for April 2013 indicates that imports into Houston and Port Arthur region refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast included 425 Mb/d of light and 425 Mb/d of medium quality crudes. Seventy three percent of the imports that month were heavy crude. Domestic and/or Canadian supplies fed only 43 percent of the region’s 3.18 MMb/d crude demand. That balance of refinery crude supplies will change significantly by 2014 as increased domestic production finds a path to the Houston and Port Arthur regions via new and expanded pipeline capacity. Today we extend our Permian series by digging into the import data and building a Houston/Port Arthur refinery supply demand balance.

Permian crude production is set to increase 0.4 MMb/d to 1.8 MMb/d by December 2018 (Bentek). New pipeline capacity currently being built and planned to be in place by the end of 2015 should comfortably handle the output by then – primarily pushing Permian crude into the Houston market. The bigger question is whether Houston region Gulf Coast refineries can process the new crude without significant reconfiguration. Today we review whether Gulf Coast refiners can handle incoming Permian production.