As the North American crude market continues its abundant growth, the midstream sector has been investing heavily to keep up with the expanding oil production. A number of announced projects, including rail and pipeline, are focused on the subsequent transportation of crude oil from emerging North American shale plays.

In order to provide additional takeaway capacity for increasing Permian basin crude oil production, Plains All American Pipeline LP (PAA) announced plans to construct a new 310-mile crude oil pipeline that will transport both sweet and sour crude to the PAA and Enterprise Eagle Ford joint venture (JV) pipeline. It will have an initial capacity of 200,000 barrels (bbl.) per day. PAA announced that crude oil delivered on the Cactus Pipeline will have access to rail loading capacity at PAA’s Gardendale, Texas, station and access to the Eagle Ford JV barge dock facility in the Corpus Christi, Texas, area. The Cactus Pipeline is expected to cost approximately $350 million and will be placed in service in the first quarter of 2014.

A number of products have been recently announced to handle the onslaught of crude from the Bakken shale, including the Enbridge Berthold rail project. Enbridge Rail LLC and Phillips 66 Co. have agreed to a three-year deal for unit-train loading of Bakken shale crude oil at the Enbridge Berthold, North Dakota, terminal beginning this month, with volumes increasing to between 35,000 to 40,000 bbl. per day by November. According to a release, the Enbridge Berthold rail project can accommodate up to three unit trains at once and is located adjacent to the Enbridge North Dakota Storage facilities, which have a capacity of 2.2 million bbl. of contract storage.

Also, work will soon begin on Indigo Resources Ltd.’s new railto- barge crude oil terminal, which will be located near Oseceola, Arkansas, on the Mississippi River. The terminal is designed to unload two unit trains of crude per day and three manifest trains of bitumen per week, the company said in a recent release. The terminal will have 2 million bbl. of storage capacity consisting of four tanks with a 250,000 bbl. capacity each and 10 tanks with 100,000 bbl. capacities each. This will provide individual storage for the many different types of crude oils. The Indigo Terminal will also provide blending services. The storage facility will have dedicated-tankage capabilities for inbound crudes from Canada, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming.

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