CRC to acquire Crimson Midstream’s California pipeline platform
California Resources Corp. has agreed to acquire Crimson Midstream Holdings LLC from CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust for $63 million in cash, expanding CRC's California midstream footprint by about 2,000 miles of pipeline infrastructure with transportation capacity of up to 400,000 b/d.
CRC said in a release Aug. 10 that the assets to be acquired include the SoCal Pipeline Network, IVEC Line, San Pablo Bay Pipeline, KLM Pipeline, among other assets.
Francisco Leon, president and chief executive officer of CRC, in a release Aug. 10, said the midstream network will help the company “efficiently deliver California-produced [crude oil] barrels directly to the highest-value markets.”
Speaking on a conference call with analysts, Leon said growing CRC’s midstream and marketing operations is “a logical step to bolster our long-term strategy” after the acquisitions of Aera and Berry. The Crimson assets, he added, are worth more inside CRC than as an independent midstream player and adds to the company’s efforts to become an integrated energy venture.
“Crimson is doing exactly what an acquisition should be doing for us,” Leon said. “It is adding more stale contracted cash flow and makes the broader California platform even stronger.”
Helping CRC these days, Leon also said on the call, is that the energy market in California is “improving drastically” thanks to a higher rig count and oil production feeding pipeline systems and some refineries investing in their Golden State infrastructure.
“Going forward, we see a potentially fragile global energy supply chain, where reliable barrels are going to become increasingly more valuable, which makes owning this California infrastructure even more important,” he said.
The deal builds on CRC's separate midstream expansion earlier this year. As noted in its second-quarter 2026 earnings presentation Aug. 10, CRC said it acquired an integrated Central Valley midstream network identified as Line 100 (P66). That transaction involved a 118-mile crude oil pipeline system with capacity of 60,000 b/d, connecting key Central Valley production hubs. CRC also said the acquisition added more than 1 million bbl of oil storage capacity, as well as integrated gathering, transportation, and truck-loading infrastructure.
The transaction to acquire Crimson Midstream is expected to close in this year’s third quarter, subject to regulatory approvals.
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Mikaila Adams
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Mikaila Adams has 20 years of experience as an editor, most of which has been centered on the oil and gas industry. She enjoyed 12 years focused on the business/finance side of the industry as an editor for Oil & Gas Journal's sister publication, Oil & Gas Financial Journal (OGFJ). After OGFJ ceased publication in 2017, she joined Oil & Gas Journal and was later named Managing Editor - News. Her role has expanded into content strategy. She holds a degree from Texas Tech University.
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A native of Belgium, Geert De Lombaerde has more than two decades of business journalism experience and writes about markets and economic trends for Endeavor Business Media publications Healthcare Innovation, IndustryWeek, FleetOwner, Oil & Gas Journal and T&D World. With a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, he began his reporting career at the Business Courier in Cincinnati and later was managing editor and editor of the Nashville Business Journal. Most recently, he oversaw the online and print products of the Nashville Post and reported primarily on Middle Tennessee’s finance sector as well as many of its publicly traded companies.