Page 13 - NorthAmOil week 23

NorthAmOil
NEWS IN BRIEF
NorthAmOil
UPSTREAM
Drillers target Spraberry in West Texas
Unconventional producers are increasingly targeting the Permian Basin’s Spraberry formation, which was rst targeted in the 1950s, as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing make the play easier to tap.
Over the week up to June 10, around 25 companies led applications for 149 drilling permits targeting the Spraberry, with this accounting for over half of all the applications led with the Railroad Commission of Texas that week according to the San Antonio Express-News.
Endeavor Energy Resources led with applications for 22 Spraberry drilling permits led over the past week.
Diamondback Energy led for 16 permits targeting the play, and Birch Operations applied for 15.
MIDSTREAM
Court reverses blocking of Keystone XL
An appellate court on June 6 overturned a 2018 Montana federal judge’s order blocking the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
e ruling by Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, California, applies only to the legal battle over a now-defunct federal Department of State (DoS) permit. e permit was replaced by the government of US President Donald Trump with a presidential permit in March, in a move that is considered unusual.
e latest decision the Ninth Circuit Court invalidates a November 2018 ruling from US District Judge Brian Morris, who
ruled the federal government had failed to adequately analyse the environmental impacts of the pipeline.
But the ruling does not mean that operator TC Energy – formerly TransCanada – can proceed with construction just yet. Opponents of the project led in federal court in April to block the new presidential permit, and the case appears to be ongoing. TC Energy has indicated to investors that it cannot begin construction this year.
e company had begun initial pre- construction work in eastern Montana in
the autumn of 2018 prior to Morris’ ruling. e pipeline, which would carry crude from Alberta’s oil sands to Nebraska, from where it could be shipped on to the US Gulf Coast, has been held up in regulatory and legal delays for over 10 years.
NuStar Energy announces binding open season for expansion of its Valley Pipeline System
NuStar Energy announced today the start of its binding open season for committed re ned product transportation on the expanded capacity of its Valley Pipeline System in South Texas.
e Valley Pipeline System is an approximately 196-mile re ned products pipeline from the Corpus Christi, TX area,
to delivery points in Brownsville, TX, Edinburg, TX and Harlingen, TX. e current Valley Pipeline System is capable of transporting approximately 45,000 barrels per day. e expansion project, which includes the construction of a 75-mile loop of the pipeline segment between Seeligson, TX and Edinburg, TX, and improvements at pump
stations along the line, is expected to increase the capacity of the Valley Pipeline System
by approximately 45,000 bpd. Based on signi cant customer commitments to utilise the expanded capacity, NuStar is proceeding with the project and the binding open season is intended for additional customer interest for the o ered capacity and potential further capacity expansion.
NuStar is proposing to make up to 90% of the expanded capacity available to shippers making long-term, ship-or-pay commitments, with at least 10% available for walk-up shippers. e project is expected to be in service in the third quarter of 2019.
NUSTAR ENERGY, June 12, 2019
Brazos Midstream
announces extension of
Delaware Basin gathering
system to support
processing agreement
with Shell Exploration &
Production
Brazos Midstream today announced it has executed gathering and processing agreements with Shell Exploration & Production to construct a new natural gas gathering system located in the core of the Delaware Basin. Brazos’ new midstream infrastructure is anchored by een year, fee-based acreage dedications totaling 55,000 acres in Loving, Ward, and Winkler counties.
Brazos will construct 16 miles of high- pressure pipeline that will extend from the Company’s existing gathering and processing systems and can be expanded further to support multi-well pad development by current producer customers, as well as other producers in the area.
Brazos also announced it recently commissioned the Comanche III plant, a 200 million cubic feet per day cryogenic natural gas processing plant.
Comanche III, which began processing volumes in the first quarter of 2019, is
the third plant in Brazos’ natural gas processing complex, located in Reeves County, Texas, and brings Brazos’ total operated processing capacity in the region to 460 mmcf per day. Brazos anticipates further expansion of its processing complex with Comanche IV, a new
200 mmcf per day plant, and expects construction to begin as early as 2020.
Week 23 13•June•2019
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