TransCanada begins Gulf Coast Project crude shipments

Jan. 22, 2014
TransCanada Corp. has begun crude oil shipments between Cushing, Okla., and Nederland, Tex., on its Gulf Coast Project pipeline. The 36-in. OD, 485-mile pipeline has an initial design capacity of 700,000 b/d, expandable to 830,000 b/d.

TransCanada Corp. has begun crude oil shipments between Cushing, Okla., and Nederland, Tex., on its Gulf Coast Project pipeline. The 36-in. OD, 485-mile pipeline has an initial design capacity of 700,000 b/d, expandable to 830,000 b/d. Deliveries on the pipeline will be used in the Beaumont-Port Arthur refining center.

The $2.3-billion Gulf Coast Project, which included that addition of 2.25-million bbl of storage at Cushing, would serve as the southern leg of an eventual Keystone XL pipeline. TransCanada last year pushed its in-service date for Keystone XL to second-half 2015 due to continued delays in the project’s approval by the US government (OGJ Online, May 6, 2013).

The company is also building the 47-mile, 36-in. OD Houston Lateral to transport crude shipped on the Gulf Coast Project to Houston refineries, and expect to have it complete by this year’s fourth quarter. Houston Lateral will cross Liberty, Chambers, and Harris counties and increase refining capacity reachable via the Gulf Coast Project to more than 4 million b/d.

Price Gregory International, a Quanta Services Inc. company, is installing the Houston Lateral.