Plains, EPP to expand Eagle Ford crude pipeline

Sept. 19, 2013
Plains All American Pipeline LP and Enterprise Products Partners LP have agreed to expand their 50-50 Eagle Ford joint venture crude oil pipeline.

Plains All American Pipeline LP and Enterprise Products Partners LP have agreed to expand their 50-50 Eagle Ford joint venture crude oil pipeline. The expansion will increase the pipeline’s capacity to 470,000 b/d of light and medium crude oil from 350,000 b/d to accommodate additional volumes expected from Plains’ Cactus pipeline, currently under construction. It also will add a total 2.3 million bbl of storage in Gardendale, Tilden, and Corpus Christi, Tex.

The companies expect the expansion to enter service second-quarter 2015. Expansion will occur in stages, by adding pumping capacity and looping certain segments of the existing system, at a total cost of $120 million.

The Eagle Ford JV pipeline system—most of which is currently in service, with the rest expected to be completed by Sept. 30—delivers crude to both the Three Rivers and Corpus Christi refineries and a marine transport terminal at Corpus Christi. The pipeline supplies the Houston-area through a connection to the EPP Crude Pipeline terminal and EPP’s South Texas Crude Oil Pipeline at Lyssy in Wilson County, Tex (OGJ Online, Aug. 7, 2012).

Plains is building the Cactus Pipeline from McCamey, Tex., in the Permian basin to Gardendale. The pipeline will have an initial capacity of 200,000 b/d and is also expected to enter service second-quarter 2015.