EPIC Pipeline Set to Start U.S. Gulf Coast Oil Exports Soon

• EPIC Midstream Holdings, the company set up to build and operate crude oil and natural gas liquids pipelines from the Permian Basin to the U.S. Gulf Coast, will start actual exports of crude product from its terminal in Corpus Christi by the end of 2019, EPIC Midstream’s President Brian Freed told Reuters in an interview.
• EPIC Midstream said that it appointed Freed president. Freed has two decades of senior management experience at Apache Corporation; Crestwood Equity Partners; Inergy Midstream, L.P.; Energy Solutions International; and Entessa, Inc.

Freed said in a statement that “EPIC has a bright future, and I look forward to helping the company meet its goal of addressing surging crude oil and natural gas liquids takeaway needs from the Permian and Eagle Ford Basins.”

The EPIC Crude Oil Pipeline from Orla, Texas, to the Port of Corpus Christi is one of several crude oil pipelines that is set to alleviate the bottlenecks in the fastest-growing U.S. oil basin and to be in service in the second half of 2019, according to EPIC Midstream.

Production outpaced pipeline takeaway capacity in the Permian in early 2018, which weighed heavily on the Midland oil prices compared to other U.S. benchmarks. Companies are currently rushing to complete and place into service more pipelines to relieve the bottlenecks, and some are converting pipelines from shipping natural gas liquids (NGL) to crude oil to further ease the takeaway capacity congestion.

To keep up on pipeline related news, check the Submar blog regularly, where we’ll keep you up to date.