Mile

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.

Major environmental groups leading opposition to the northern portion of the proposed $7 billion, 1,700-mile Keystone XL oil pipeline project from Alberta to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico region lashed out at the U.S. State Department last Friday for not making public the comments being collected on the project’s draft supplemental environmental impact statement (see Shale Daily, March 4). Effectively, the only way to hear and respond to public comments on the draft study will be at a hearing scheduled for April 18 in Grand Island, NB, said a Friends of the Earth spokesperson, calling the move “unusual.” This is prompting the foes of Keystone XL to claim the State Department is violating public transparency practices followed by other federal agencies regarding draft environmental studies. The stakeholders are in the middle of a 45-day comment period on the proposed northern portion of TransCanada Corp.’s controversial tar sands oil pipeline from Western Canada to Cushing, OK.

Enterprise Products Partners LP said Tuesday it has signed up enough customers to support its planned 270-mile pipeline header system to carry ethane from Mont Belvieu, TX, to petrochemical plants in the Gulf Coast region.

Enbridge Bakken Pipeline Co. Inc. has completed and placed in service its 77-mile Bakken Pipeline Project Canada, which connects to the Enbridge Pipelines Inc. (EPI) Mainline and carries crude oil from the Bakken Shale to North American refinery markets, Enbridge Energy Partners LP (EEP) and Enbridge Income Fund said Monday.

The U.S. State Department on Friday released a draft supplemental environmental impact statement (DSEIS) on the proposed northern portion of TransCanada Corp.’s controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline from Western Canada to Cushing, OK, drawing strong reactions from supporters and opponents alike.

Regency Energy Partners LP is adding to its midstream asset collection a 5,600-mile gas gathering system and about 500 MMcf/d of processing and treating facilities in West Texas and New Mexico for natural gas and natural gas liquids with a deal that gives it Southern Union Gas Services Ltd. (SUGS).

Xcel Energy Inc., which provides power generation to Colorado customers, plans to build a 21-mile transmission line (230-kV) in the Piceance Basin to serve anticipated natural gas-fired generation to enhance reliability on the Western Slope. A 1,100 MW gas-fired generator also is planned near Mesquite, NV, on 250 acres of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. A unit of EWP Renewables Corp. has filed an application with Nevada regulators to construct the plant, which would come online in two 550 MW phases in 2016 and 2017.

Nebraska environmental officials on Friday issued a final evaluation report regarding TransCanada Corp.’s alternative route for the norethern portion of its proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline. The rerouting avoids environmentally sensitive areas in the Sand Hills region of the state, and carries 57 special conditions that TransCanada has agreed to fulfill.

Cameron Interstate Pipeline LLC, a subsidiary of San Diego-based Sempra Energy, has filed an application to loop a 21-mile segment of its pipeline system in Hackberry, LA with a 42-inch pipe, to accommodate natural gas exports.