Texas Oil Pipeline To Start In November, Easing Bottleneck

Plains All American L.P. will begin operations on an expanded West Texas oil pipeline on Nov. 1, helping to ease a bottleneck that has weighed on Midland crude prices for months, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Booming production in west Texas’ Permian Basin, the biggest U.S. oil field, has overwhelmed existing pipelines to Gulf Coast export markets, driving oil prices to as much as $18 below those at the coast this year. Production in the Permian has nearly doubled in the last three years, to 3.4 million barrels per day (MMbbl/d).

The Houston-based pipeline operator this month began filling its extended Sunrise pipeline, which when completed will add 500,000 bbl/d from Midland to Wichita Falls, Texas, with connections to the main U.S. crude storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma.