Seaway Pipeline Co. expects to have added capacity on-stream this week to meet higher summer demand for crude oil among refineries in the U.S. Midcontinent.
Seaway project is a combine of units of ARCO and Phillips Petroleum Co. ARCO Pipe Line Co. operates the system.
"Our schedule calls for us to have the 30 in. pipeline from Freeport, Tex., to Cushing, Okla., available for service by May 1, bringing the initial capacity of the system to 430,000 b/d," Karen K. Caldwell, president of ARCO Seaway Inc. and project manager for the partnership, said last week.
Crude moves north from Freeport to transportation hubs in the Cushing area for further shipment to refiners in several Midcontinent states.
Construction and improvements have been finished on 42 in. crude oil pipelines from Freeport docks to the Jones Creek tank farm and pump station 7 miles north. Jones Creek's storage capacity is 1.6 million bbl.
Also completed are dredging and berth widening projects to allow tankers as large as 150,000 dwt to call at Freeport.
Seaway pointed out that waterborne crude helps offset declines from West Texas and Oklahoma fields as well as Alaska North Slope crude currently heading for the Midcontinent.
Crude oil offloaded from tankers moves from Texas City to Cushing through a 20 in. pipeline with a design capacity of 160,000 b/d.
The system expansion will employ a new 30 in. line to boost capacity by 270,000 b/d. Seaway's ultimate capacity is to be 800,000 b/d.
In addition, the system will offer shipments of segregated crudes and customized blends.
Caldwell said Seaway has the flexibility to transport the whole range of oils from condensates and other light, sweet crudes to heavy crude such as 17o gravity from Venezuela "as well as everything in between."
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