Partners to proceed with Seaway expansion
Enbridge Inc. and Enterprise Products Partners LP said they have secured capacity commitments from shippers enabling them to proceed with expansion of the Seaway Pipeline, flow of which they’re reversing to carry crude oil from Cushing, Okla., to the Texas Gulf Coast (OGJ Online, Jan. 5, 2012).
Enbridge also said it will increase the size and capacity of its Flanagan South Project between Flanagan, Ill., and a connection with the Seaway system at Cushing. The pipeline now will have a 36-in. diameter and initial capacity of 585,000 b/d. Additional pumping stations could boost capacity to 800,000 b/d. Enbridge now operates the 650-mile Spearhead pipeline between Flanagan and Cushing, with capacity of 193,300 b/d.
The Seaway project will more than double capacity of the pipeline to 850,000 b/d by mid-2014. It includes construction of a 512-mile, 30-in. twin along the route of the existing pipeline, which will add 450,000 b/d of capacity.
Enbridge and Enterprise said they have nearly completed the first phase of the Seaway reversal, which will provide 150,000 b/d of takeaway capacity at Cushing by June 1. Addition of pump stations and modifications will boost capacity to 400,000 b/d of a mix of light and heavy crude oils by the first quarter of 2013.
An Enbridge unit bought ConocoPhillips’s share of the Seaway system for $2 billion late last year (OGJ Online, Nov. 16, 2011).
The companies are holding an open system for a new 85-mile, 30-in pipeline to carry about 200,000 b/d of crude from Enterprise’s ECHO terminal southeast of Houston to refineries in Beaumont and Port Arthur, Tex. (OGJ Online, Feb. 28, 2012).
Bob Tippee | Editor
Bob Tippee has been chief editor of Oil & Gas Journal since January 1999 and a member of the Journal staff since October 1977. Before joining the magazine, he worked as a reporter at the Tulsa World and served for four years as an officer in the US Air Force. A native of St. Louis, he holds a degree in journalism from the University of Tulsa.
