Plains All American Pipeline LP (PAA) is constructing the Cactus Pipeline, a 310-mile, 20-inch diameter crude oil pipeline from McCamey to Gardendale, TX. It is expected to enter service during the first quarter of 2015. The partnership said it has a long-term agreement for a majority of the pipeline’s capacity and is talking with other potential shippers. The pipeline is expected to cost $350-375 million and transport both sweet and sour crude oil from the Permian Basin to the PAA/Enterprise Products Partners Eagle Ford Joint Venture (Eagle Ford JV) Pipeline. The Eagle Ford JV Pipeline directly serves the Three Rivers and Corpus Christi markets and can supply the Houston-area market through a connection to the Enterprise South Texas Crude Oil Pipeline. Crude oil delivered on Cactus will have access to rail loading capacity at PAA’s Gardendale station and access to the Eagle Ford JV barge dock facility in the Corpus Christi area. Initial capacity will be about 200,000 b/d.

Atlas Pipeline Partners LP has ramped up the 200 MMcf/d Driver cryogenic processing plant on its WestTX system in the Permian Basin of Texas and connected another natural gas liquids (NGL) pipe at the WestOK system in the Mississippian Lime and Anadarko Basins of Kansas and Oklahoma. The Driver facility increases overall processing capacity on the WestTX system to 455 MMcf/d and allows production from the Spraberry and Wolfberry formations, among others. The facility is expected to run in start-up mode at reduced volumes for about two weeks. The WestOK system in the Mississippian increased NGL takeaway capacity through connection to DCP Midstream Partners LP‘s Southern Hills NGL pipeline, which supports output from the Waynoka II facility, a 200 MMcf/d cryogenic processing facility placed in service in September 2012.

Merrion Oil & Gas said it is seeking a new partner to help develop its San Juan Basin Mancos Shale acreage as its previous agreement with a Denver-based producer, reported to be Bill Barrett Corp., has been terminated. “We are disappointed because our partners were good to work with, and we had hoped that they were going to be able to maximize the value of our acreage position,” said Merrion President T. Greg Merrion. “Having said that, we now have the opportunity to find a new partner with a stronger focus on the development of this new resource play.” Merrion controls about 30,000 net acres in the basin, most of it “very favorably located in the oil window near ongoing drilling activity.” No wells had been drilled under the joint venture, but a number of permits are ready to go, the company said. Interested prospective partners may contact George Sharpe, Merrion investment manager, at (505) 324-5314, or gsharpe@merrion.bz. Bill Barrett did not respond to a request for comment.