HOUSTON—Crestwood Equity Partners LP provided an update July 7 on its Bakken operations including the Arrow gathering system, Bear Den processing plants and the COLT Hub and Rail Loading Facility.

Throughout second-quarter 2020, basin fundamentals steadily improved as crude oil pipeline and storage limitations were alleviated and WTI pricing and Bakken basis differentials stabilized. Correspondingly, Arrow crude oil, natural gas and produced water volumes improved throughout the quarter as producers reduced early second quarter production shut-ins.

During the quarter, the Arrow system averaged crude oil gathering volumes of 87,000 bbl/d, natural gas gathering volumes of 90 MMcf/d, water gathering volumes of 73,000 bbl/d and natural gas processing volumes of 87 MMcf/d. These average quarterly volumes exceeded initial forecasts estimated by Arrow producers and significantly exceeded Crestwood’s revised guidance issued in May 2020, which assumed 50% of volumes on the system would be shut-in through July 2020.

Currently, approximately 90% of estimated available Arrow production is flowing, and based on producer plans for the second half of 2020, Crestwood expects the Arrow system to return to 100% flow rates and its larger producer customers to bring back completion crews starting in the third quarter 2020.

Following the recent announcement regarding possible curtailments on the Dakota Access Pipeline, Crestwood is actively engaged with its producer customers on the Arrow system to ensure downstream market access for 100% of available crude oil volumes. The Arrow gathering system currently connects to the DAPL, Hiland and Tesoro pipelines, providing significant downstream delivery capacity for our Arrow customers. Additionally, Crestwood can transport Arrow crude volumes to its COLT Hub facility in Epping, N.D., by pipeline or truck.

The COLT Hub facility is the leading crude oil terminal in the Bakken with multiple pipeline connections, storage capacity of 1.2 MMbbl and rail loading capacity of 160,000 bbl/d of crude oil. Historically, the COLT Hub, located on the BNSF rail line, has been a premier Bakken supply and aggregation source for marketers and refiners in the East and West coast markets.

Robert G. Phillips, chairman, president and CEO of Crestwood’s general partner, commented, “We are pleased that Arrow producers returned shut-in production to service so quickly in the second quarter as market conditions improved. In the event of a shut-down of the DAPL pipeline in August or at some future point, Bakken basis differentials will be negatively affected in the short term until production volumes are reallocated to other pipelines and rail facilities. Crestwood’s full service value chain in the Bakken and the ability to clear 100% of producer barrels from the Arrow system through other regional pipelines or the COLT Hub facility not only protects and preserves the value of Arrow’s operations, but mitigates the impact to our producers’ net backs with the ability to access multiple markets out of the basin.”