Crude Summit: Enterprise weighs new Permian oil project

Enterprise Products Partners is weighing another long haul crude pipeline from the Midland basin to Houston, Texas.

"We are right now socializing it and talking to customers," said Enterprise senior vice president of liquids hydrocarbons marketing Brent Secrest on the sidelines of the Argus Americas Crude Summit conference in Houston.

Secrest but did not give any further details about the pipeline, except that it was an Enterprise-only venture and not a joint effort with another company.

Enterprise already operates the 575,000 b/d Midland-to-Sealy crude pipeline. That line moves oil from Enterprise's Midland terminal in west Texas to its Sealy storage facility west of Houston, which is connected to the company's Echo terminal. From Echo, shippers can reach refineries in Houston, Texas City, Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas, as well as Enterprise's dock facilities for export.

Midstream companies are building large projects to move more crude from the Permian basin to the Gulf coast amid booming production and increasing interest in exporting crude.

Enterprise forecasts that US crude exports will reach 7mn b/d by 2025 as growing demand from Asia will be matched by US output.