Refinery

NuStar Logistics LP and Velocity Midstream Partners said they are developing a pipeline to transport west Eagle Ford Shale condensate from Velocity’s Gardendale Hub to NuStar’s North Beach Corpus Christi, TX terminal.

Residual impacts from last year’s Gulf of Mexico hurricanes, higher taxes and a prolonged Texas refinery shutdown sent BP plc’s 1Q2006 net profit down 15% from a year ago, despite higher commodity prices. The London-based major posted a net profit of $5.63 billion, compared with $6.602 billion in 1Q2005.

ConocoPhillips beat Wall Street forecasts in the second quarter, with income up 51% on high commodity prices and strong results in its marketing and refinery businesses. And even though production fell sequentially on planned and unplanned maintenance, CEO Jim Mulva said he expects the company’s total 2005 oil and natural gas output to increase 3% over 2004.

In line with its plans to exit the refinery business and concentrate on North American natural gas pipelines and production, El Paso Corp. announced progress Wednesday on three petroleum asset sales totaling approximately $156 million. The news came on the heels of a deal that fell through to sell some properties in the Uinta Basin to Vintage Petroleum Co. (see related story).

Conoco reported record results for the third quarter, as strongprices and margins for refined products and record refinerythroughputs produced net income of $523 million, or $0.83 perdiluted share, double that of third quarter 1999. “Earnings were atrecord levels for the third consecutive quarter, and majordiscoveries were made in Vietnam and the deep-water Gulf ofMexico,” said CEO Archie W. Dunham. “In the North Sea, we completedthe Norsk Hydro producing properties acquisition and broughtonstream the Vixen natural gas field. We also announced agroundbreaking 20-year supply contract to deliver Indonesiannatural gas to Malaysia. Great strides are being achieved inexploration. We are extremely encouraged by the Magnolia appraisalwell currently being drilled in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, weunveiled the industry’s most powerful exploration supercomputerthat allows more cost-effective seismic data analysis. In a relatedstep, we began a massive geophysical survey over 2,000 deep-waterblocks in the Gulf of Mexico, using gravity gradiometry technologyonce used exclusively by the military,” he said. The company’s U.S.gas production was down 2% from 3Q99 levels to 826 MMcf/d. Itstotal net worldwide production was down 4% to 619 Mboe/d.