Plains All American Pipeline Buys Velocity Midstream's Eagle Ford Assets

Plains All American Pipeline (PAA) announced plans to acquire Volocity Midstream's - Velocity South Texas Gathering assets.  The pipeline and midstream deal includes over 120 miles of crude oil and condensate pipe with capacity of 150,000 barrels per day through parts of Dimmit, La Salle, and Webb counties. The pipeline system is underpinned by volume commitments from major producers in the area. If warranted, the system can be expanded to handle 185,000 barrels per day. The system also has storage capacity at Catarina and Gardendale. The Gardendale facility ties directly into Plains All American's existing Eagle Ford pipeline.

The deal was part of a larger announcement by PAA that included assets on the East Coast, in the Permian Basin, and in Canada for a total of $620 million. Much of the midstream activity in South Texas to date has been new projects, but we expect more consolidation in the coming months as midstream companies look to gain a true foothold in the area. Infrastructure has been one of the few restricting factors in the play, but major projects are on pace to remedy current concerns over the next couple of years.

The Partnership recently closed the acquisition of 100 percent of the member interests in Velocity South Texas Gathering, LLC ("Velocity") from Velocity Midstream Partners, LLC. The deal includes approximately 120 miles of crude oil and condensate gathering and transportation pipelines currently in advanced stages of construction in the area of South Texas.

The Gardendale storage hub will have access to PAA's Eagle Ford pipeline as well as other transportation alternatives, including third party pipelines, truck and rail. Over the next 18 to 24 months, PAA expects to complete current construction, extend the system to access additional condensate barrels and other crude oil-oriented portions of the major resource play, and increase terminal capacity at Gardendale from 150,000 barrels to 250,000 barrels.

Read the entire news release at paalp.com

NuStar - Velocity join for Eagle Ford Condensate Pipeline

Velocity and NuStar join together to help move and store condensate from the Eagle Ford. The facilities will add needed capacity for the regions growing production.

"Velocity will build and operate a new 70-mile, 12-inch pipeline with the capacity to move over 100,000 barrels per day of condensate from Gardendale to Oakville, Texas. Velocity's 12-inch pipeline will interconnect with NuStar's new Oakville Storage Facility near Three Rivers, Texas. This storage facility will be connected to NuStar's existing 16-inch pipeline, which has the capacity to transport approximately 200,000 barrels per day of crude and condensate into NuStar's Corpus Christi North Beach Terminal.

The North Beach terminal has approximately 2 million barrels of storage capacity, large-scale marine loading facilities, and access to several Corpus Christi refinery markets. NuStar also has a land lease option for 15 acres contiguous to the existing property, which will provide terminal expansion capabilities."

"Velocity is currently constructing 65 miles of pipeline and 150,000 barrels of storage to transport condensate to Velocity's Gardendale Terminal for producers, including Shell E&P, Chesapeake, SM Energy and Rosetta Resources. The addition of the NuStar partnership allows Velocity to quickly offer these and other producers a downstream solution to transport condensate from the Gardendale Terminal to end markets with strong purchaser demand. Construction of Velocity's 12-inch pipeline and NuStar's Three Rivers storage facility will begin this summer and the system is expected to be in service by April of 2012."

Read the full press release at NuStarEnergy.com