Page 10 - LatAmOil Week 24

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Mixed fortunes for US mega-projects complete, was now expected to enter service in
Some good news came for two major US pipe- early 2021.
line projects this week, even as the oil and gas On the Gulf Coast, meanwhile, Exxon-
industry continues to be affected by the mar- Mobil is reportedly delaying the start-up of its
ket downturn and a major Gulf Coast refining Beaumont refinery by a year as it grapples with
expansion delay has also been reported. depressed demand as a result of the coronavirus
On June 15, the US Supreme Court upheld (COVID-19) pandemic. Citing sources familiar
a permit for Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast with the matter, Bloomberg reported that the
pipeline, ruling that the Forest Service had acted project was now anticipated to start up in 2023
lawfully in allowing the project to cross under instead of 2022.
the Appalachian Trail. The expansion will make Beaumont one of
A lower court ruling had been holding up the largest two refineries in the US, along with
construction on the pipeline. Motiva Enterprises’ plant in Port Arthur, Texas.
The ruling was considered to be the main It entails adding a crude distillation unit (CDU)
obstacle for the $8bn pipeline, which will have with a capacity of 250,000 bpd, lifting the Beau-
the capacity to carry 1.5bn cubic feet (42.5mn mont refinery’s overall capacity to 619,000 bpd.
cubic metres) per day of gas from the Marcellus ExxonMobil had been planning the expan-
shale to North Carolina and West Virginia. sion to help accommodate its growing crude
And the ruling is also good news for the production in the Permian Basin. However, the
Mountain Valley pipeline, with operator EQM super-major scaled back its Permian drilling
Midstream Partners also hoping to route the plans dramatically this year as the downturn
project across the Appalachian Trail and some took hold.
bodies of water regulated by the US Fish and
Wildlife Service. If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
Indeed, EQM announced last week that the the North American oil and gas sector, then please click
Mountain Valley pipeline, which is around 92% here for NewsBase’s NorthAmOil Monitor. ™

THE BAHAMAS
Bahamas Petroleum Co. acquires

Columbus Energy for GBP25mn

OIL and gas independent Bahamas Petroleum of oil and gas activities, the companies said in a
Co. (BPC) has struck a deal worth approximately joint statement.
GBP25mn ($31.7mn) to acquire Columbus “Today’s announcement sees the maturing of
Energy. The merger will create a Caribbean and our company into an Atlantic margin-focused,
Atlantic margin-focused oil and gas “champion”, full-cycle exploration and production com-
with assets that range across the full spectrum pany,” said Simon Potter, the CEO of BPC.

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 24 18•June•2020