Plains All-American Pipeline is focused on increasing the capacity of its crude oil gathering system in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, even as it moves ahead with the long-haul Cactus II line that will provide long-term takeaway capacity from that basin, its top managers said late Tuesday.
* Several projects to start coming online from this month
* Cactus III still a potential project
* Delaware condensate output to more than triple by 2023
The company has several projects in varying stages of readiness set to startup this year to debottleneck its gathering system in the western Permian, also known as the Delaware Basin, Plains President and Chief Commercial Officer Harry Pefanis said during the 2018 Analyst Day in Houston webcast. “We’re very bullish on the Permian,” Pefanis said. “[The industry] could add 3 or 3.5 million b/d over the next four to five years out of this area.” The greater Permian Basin currently produces around 3.647 million b/d of crude oil, which is projected to jump to 4.495 million b/d by the end of the year and 5.420 million b/d by the end of 2019, thanks to more drilling and better well productivity, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics.
The Delaware Basin currently produces 1.636 million b/d, which Platts projects to rise to 2.037 million b/d by December, and 2.481 million b/d by December 2019. The first of the projects, which will add 200,000 b/d of capacity in West Texas from Wink to Midland, would come online in June, Pefanis said. In the third quarter, two projects would come online adding 50,000 b/d of capacity to Crane, Texas on the Advantage pipe system, Plains’ joint venture with Noble Energy. Also, a pipeline expansion would add 135,000 b/d from Crane to McCamey, Texas, he added.
A 26-inch line from Wink to McCamey comes into service that will help create additional debottlenecking at Wink.