Several large, publicly held midstream companies play critical roles in transporting crude oil, natural gas and NGLs from the Permian Basin to markets along the Gulf Coast, and all of them are investing hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars to expand their Permian-to-Gulf infrastructure. But there’s a privately held outlier among them — WhiteWater Midstream, which has developed key gas pipelines in Texas and has been partnering with MPLX, Enbridge and others to own and develop a few more. In today’s RBN blog, we look at the growing portfolio of WhiteWater and the WPC joint venture (JV) and discuss highlights from our new Drill Down Report on Permian-to-Gulf infrastructure projects.
Gulf Coast
Friday, 4/25/2025
Over the past 15 years, the U.S.’s crude oil supply/demand balance has been transformed by the Shale Revolution. Increasing production unlocked through horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have pushed up the nation’s overall supply without an equal change in refining capacity, resulting in significant changes in regional balances. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss what PADD-by-PADD crude oil supply/demand balances can tell us and preview our latest Drill Down Report.
Wednesday, 4/23/2025
Taking a nine- or 10-figure energy infrastructure project from concept to fruition is never easy. Siting dilemmas, permitting woes, commitment-wary customers, financing snags, legal challenges — there are seemingly endless hurdles. And that’s in normal times. Add in market volatility and fast-changing governmental policies and a developer’s job becomes darn-near impossible. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss midstream companies’ uphill battle in advancing infrastructure projects in 2025, focusing on a recently announced greenfield natural gas storage project along the Texas Gulf Coast.
Friday, 3/21/2025
A half dozen large midstream companies provide the full gamut of “wellhead-to-water” services for Permian-sourced natural gas and/or NGLs, and a couple of those offer the same for crude oil as well. For Enbridge and Plains All American, the clear focus has been on crude — pipelines, storage and marine terminals — though Enbridge has been rapidly expanding its portfolio of Permian-to-Gulf gas assets too. In today’s RBN blog, we look at what Enbridge and Plains have and what they are planning.
Monday, 3/17/2025
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.
Friday, 3/07/2025
The handful of midstream companies that provide a full range of “wellhead-to-water” services between the Permian and the Gulf Coast are in growth mode, advancing a long list of gas processing plants, takeaway pipelines, fractionators and export terminal expansions. Last time we looked at what Enterprise Products Partners and Energy Transfer are up to. In today’s RBN blog, we shift our spotlight to what Targa Resources and Phillips 66 are planning, with Targa building a slew of projects and P66 growing primarily through organic opportunities that have arisen following recent bolt-on M&A.
Wednesday, 2/26/2025
In their first earnings calls of 2025, the handful of large midstream companies that provide the gamut of “wellhead-to-water” services in Texas laid out plans for yet another round of projects — everything from gas processing plants and takeaway pipelines to fractionators and export terminal expansions. At the same time, many of these same midstreamers expressed a degree of caution about overbuilding. They sought to reassure Wall Street that they were only approving plans underpinned by strong commercial support. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the latest capital spending plans of this select, upper tier of midstream service providers.
Thursday, 1/02/2025
After a decade-long odyssey and a cost-per-mile that must make public-sector accountants in Ottawa wince, the Canadian government-owned Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMX) — which nearly tripled the capacity of the original Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMP) from Alberta to the British Columbia (BC) coast — finally came into service in May 2024. As one of Canada’s most anticipated energy infrastructure projects in many years, the 590-Mb/d TMX pipeline — built alongside the long-standing 300-Mb/d TMP — was widely touted by its advocates as a surefire way to boost exports of Western Canadian crude and reduce the nation’s near-complete reliance on exporting crude oil to — and through — its primary customer, the U.S. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss some of the surprising (and not so surprising) market developments since the expansion project started.
Wednesday, 11/20/2024
Rising demand for natural gas storage in the Gulf Coast region has spurred growing interest and investment. A number of midstream companies have been making moves, either by expanding their existing storage facilities in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama or entering the space with acquisitions or plans for greenfield projects. As a result, more than 150 Bcf of new gas storage space is in various stages of development. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss highlights from our new Drill Down Report on Gulf Coast gas storage.
Monday, 10/07/2024
Many of the natural gas storage projects under development along the Gulf Coast involve the expansion of existing salt-cavern complexes and, with that, the sharing of at least some already-built infrastructure. That typically saves money, and the lower capital costs can help make a project a “go.” But at least a few well-sited projects competing for commitments are greenfield in nature and require not just the buildout of storage capacity itself but also the development of compression, freshwater wells, saltwater disposal wells, electricity supply, header pipelines and pipeline interconnections. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss two of the largest greenfield projects in the works: the Black Bayou Energy Hub in southwestern Louisiana and the Freeport Energy Storage Hub (FRESH).
Wednesday, 10/02/2024
As a group, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have more than 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas storage capacity, most of it along — or within easy reach of — the Gulf Coast, with its long-and-growing list of LNG export terminals as well as gas-consuming industries and gas-fired power plants. That’s a good thing, but still more gas storage will be needed to help ensure there is sufficient gas in hand to meet the region’s rising — and increasingly volatile — requirements. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll continue our review of Gulf Coast storage projects with a look at plans by Trinity Gas Storage and Caliche Storage.
Tuesday, 10/01/2024
Storms that form in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) during hurricane season don’t just dissipate once they make landfall and can inflict havoc on onshore assets. Storm damage and flooding can delay plant restarts, but so can power outages, as we saw when Hurricane Beryl hit the Texas/Louisiana region in July. And while there were no major refining or production assets in the path of Hurricane Helene, which slammed into the Florida Panhandle on September 26, widespread damage illustrated the potential risk to onshore infrastructure. In today’s RBN blog, we will examine how hurricanes have disrupted onshore assets and explain why power restoration is often the Achilles’ heel in plans to resume normal operations.
Friday, 9/20/2024
Very little new natural gas storage capacity has been built along the Gulf Coast the past few years, but that’s changing. Driven by rising demand from power generators, LNG operators/offtakers, marketers and traders for storage with high deliverability rates — and by improving storage economics — new salt-cavern and depleted-reservoir capacity is now being developed by midstream players large and small, with plans for a lot more. In today’s RBN blog, we‘ll continue our review of gas storage projects in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi with a look at what Kinder Morgan, EnLink Midstream and Enstor Gas have been up to.
Wednesday, 9/11/2024
Fast-changing dynamics in Gulf Coast natural gas, electricity and LNG export markets are increasing the value of gas storage in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi — or, more specifically, the merit of quickly injecting and withdrawing gas to respond to market swings. As a result, interest in developing gas storage projects with high “deliverability" rates has taken off, with billions of cubic feet of new storage capacity already coming online and a lot more in the works. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll begin a look at why so many market participants — power generators, LNG operators/offtakers, midstreamers, marketers and traders — are chasing the “extrinsic” value of gas storage and where the new storage projects are being built.
Houston (Means I'm One Day Closer to You) - Deepwater Port Could Bolster Houston’s Status as Oil Hub
Wednesday, 5/22/2024
The Houston crude oil hub has become busier over the last few months, and if one or more proposals to build a deepwater export terminal nearby capable of fully loading a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) cross the finish line, it could become the hub supplying them. That could push Permian Basin oil flows on Houston-bound pipelines higher at the expense of flows to Nederland and Corpus Christi. In today’s RBN blog, the third in a series, we will examine the latest Permian oil flows to Houston and how that could change if and when a deepwater project comes online.