Christopher E. Smith
OGJ Pipeline Editor
HOUSTON, Mar. 1 -- Enterprise Products Partners LP purchased a 39-mile carbon dioxide pipeline from Trinity Pipeline LP that Enterprise will convert to crude oil service. The 8-in. OD pipeline, extending from Reeves County, Tex., to Lea County, NM, will be capable of shipping an estimated 54,000 b/d to the Basin Pipeline.
Converting the pipeline to oil service and linking to Basin will expand takeaway capacity in the Permian basin’s Bone Spring-Avalon play, allowing shippers access to Enterprise's network, including storage facilities at Midland, Tex., and Cushing, Okla. Enterprise will build a central delivery point and associated infrastructure for receiving truck deliveries of crude oil for loading onto the converted line. Construction of the new facilities and conversion of the pipeline to crude oil service is expected to be completed by yearend.
The Bone Spring-Avalon play is characterized by an interval of shale, sandstone, and limestone up to 2,000 ft thick. Prospective production has been identified in multiple horizons on more than 2 million acres throughout Eddy and Lea counties in New Mexico and Reeves, Loving, Ward, and Culberson counties in Texas. Enterprise estimates 120,000 b/d crude oil production and 500 MMcfd gas production as possible from the play by 2018, based on 400 wells drilled/year. There are currently 30 rigs operating in the play, Enterprise said.
Energen Resources Corp, Birmingham, Ala., expanded its Bone Spring-Avalon acreage by 17,000 net acres in January and plans to drill at least 14 wells in the play during 2011 (OGJ Online, Jan. 7, 2011).
Contact Christopher E. Smith at [email protected].