American Oil and Gas Reporter - PBIOS 2016 Official Program Guide - 125

The Alpha Crude Connector (ACC) is
a 400-mile crude oil gathering system
operating in Southeast New Mexico and
Texas with an initial capacity of 100,000
bbl/d (Figure 3). Frontier Energy Services
and Concho Resources jointly own the
ACC. It provides access to multiple downstream markets through interconnects
with Plains, Enterprise and Sunoco
pipelines, as well as to the Western Refining and Holly Frontier refineries, and
a Genesis rail terminal at Wink, Tx.
Oryx Midstream Services' 160,000
bbl/d Oryx Trans Permian (OTP) Pipeline
carries oil from wells in Reeves, Ward
and Pecos counties in the Southern
Delaware Basin to regional pipeline hubs
at Crane and Midland. At Crane, OTP
connects with Magellan's Longhorn
Pipeline to East Houston, and at Midland
the OTP system connects with the Enterprise network.
Sunoco Logistics (a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Equity) owns significant
crude oil gathering and take-away assets
in the Permian, including the mainline
375,000 bbl/d West Texas Gulf system
from Colorado City to Longview and
Goodrich, Tx, and the new 200,000 bbl/d
Permian Express II from Garden City to
Nederland, Tx.
The 100,000 bbl/d Delaware Basin Expansion Pipeline from Lea County, N.M.
to Midland came on line in August, providing direct connectivity for Delaware
Basin producers to take-away hubs at Midland, Colorado City and Garden City. Three
Sunoco crude gathering systems in Lee
County, N.M., and Loving County, Tx.,
feed into the Delaware Basin Expansion.
Sunoco soon will offer producers
access to Louisiana refineries through its

Permian Longview and Louisiana Extension, which is expected on line by the
end of the year.
In The Works
In addition to these are other projects in
various stages of development. The Rangeland Energy Integrated Oil (RIO) Pipeline
is a gathering system with both rail and
pipeline components serving the Delaware
Basin. The 125,000 bbl/d RIO runs from
the Texas/New Mexico border in Loving
County, Tx., to Midland, and is expected
on line during the second half of this year.
It is a joint venture owned two-thirds
by Rangeland and one-third by Delek Logistics (part of refiner Delek U.S. Holdings,
the anchor shipper on the pipeline). The
RIO rail hub (connected to the BNSF Railroad) handles inbound deliveries of sand
proppant and drilling equipment.
Privately owned, Dallas based midstream operator Centurion, has launched
a two-phase project known as the Delaware
Basin Express to gather and deliver crude
and condensate to the Texas/Mexico
border at Brownsville by rail. Phase 1 of
the project, which was expected on line
during the third quarter, involves connecting two crude gathering terminals at
Orla and Pecos, Tx., through a 24-inch
pipeline.
The Pecos Terminal will ship up to
160,000 bbl/d of crude and/or condensate
to Brownsville on dedicated unit trains
using the Union Pacific Railroad. The
Brownsville Terminal (under construction
since September 2015) will unload rail
shipments from Pecos for export through
a marine dock or for processing at an onsite, 50,000 bbl/d condensate splitter Centurion is constructing.

FIGURE 3

SANDY
FIELDEN

Alpha Crude Connector
ALPHA CRUDE CONNECTOR PIPELINE

Delivery Points

Name

Plains/Basin Pipeline
Kinder Morgan Wink Pipeline
Western Refining Pipeline
Genesis Rail Terminal

Enterprise Pipeline

Western Refining Pipeline
Holly Refining Pipeline

Red Hills Station
Sunoco Pipeline
Segment 1
Segment 2
Segment 3
Segment 4

Truck Unloading

*
*
*
*
*

ALPHA CRUDE CONNECTOR-Design
New 400+ Mile Steel Gathering System

Nominal 100,000 bbl/d Capacity

More than 300,000 barrels of Operating Storage
Easily Expandable with Pumping

Supports Rapid Growth in the Delaware Basin

Finally, the proposed 164-mile, 200,000
bbl/d Delaware Takeaway crude and condensate gathering system (known as Delta)
is being developed by Crestwood Equity
Partners. It will run from Orla, Tx., to
connect with multiple outbound mainline
pipes delivering to El Paso, Midland,
Cushing, Houston, and Corpus Christi,
Tx. Delta is expected to be operational
in third quarter 2018.
Midstream companies also are competing for business at the distribution end
of mainline pipes by building new destination options in crowded refining markets
such as Houston. These options may be
in the form of pipeline connections to refineries farther east on the Louisiana Gulf
Coast, or may access marine docks that
can handle export cargoes.
Pipeline operators also are increasingly
offering batch service so that producers
can segregate and deliver particular grades
of crude desired by processors or export
markets, such as ultralight condensate or
sour crude grades.
With overall production volumes flat
or expanding but slowly, larger midstream
players seek to wring every last transportation dollar from producers by providing
service from the wellhead to the refinery.
Regional Permian refiners such as Western
Refining and Holly Frontier also have
built new pipeline connections to improve
their access to local supplies.
❒

ALPHA CRUDE CONNECTOR-Scope
FERC Regulated Common Carrier
Pipeline
Connecting to 4 Pipelines,
2 Regional Refineries, and
1 Rail Terminal

Sandy Fielden is director of oil
and products research at Morningstar
Commodities Research. Before joining
the company earlier this year, he
served as managing director of energy
analytics at RBN Energy LLC. With
30 years of experience in the energy
industry, Fielden previously held positions as vice president of data services
at Allegro, vice president of energy
products and services at LIM, and
product manager at Saladin. Fielden
began his career as a business analyst
at Fina in the United Kingdom. He
holds a bachelor's in international
history and politics from the University
of Leeds and a master's in business
administration from the University of
Bradford.
OCTOBER PBIOS 2016 125

American Oil and Gas Reporter - PBIOS 2016 Official Program Guide

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