FORT WORTH, Texas—Vista Proppants and Logistics on Aug. 28 announced it has entered into a definitive agreement with JupiterMLP LLC for transloading crude oil from truck to rail at its Pecos, Texas facility. Commercial operations at Pecos, one of the newest additions to Vista’s terminal network, commenced on Aug. 15.

Gary Humphreys, Vista CEO, commented, “We are excited to formalize our relationship with Jupiter and begin exporting crude out of the Permian Basin. Vista has a long history of providing innovative solutions to issues that arise for our customers in the marketplace. Today’s announcement is yet another example of the significant value provided by our unique vertically integrated logistics network. The strategic location and capabilities of our Pecos facility make it a natural fit for crude-by-rail operations, and we look forward to assisting our customers with their transport needs as takeaway infrastructure for the Permian is further built out over the next couple of years.”

Tom Ramsey, Jupiter CEO, further commented, “We value our relationship with the Vista team. The crude-by-rail opportunity that their facility provides helps us to accelerate our strategy of moving significant volumes of Permian Basin crude oil to the Gulf Coast while we construct our Jupiter Pipeline and VLCC loading terminal in Brownsville, Texas.”

Vista and Jupiter plan to ship crude oil on the Union Pacific Railroad through 2019 and potentially into 2020, depending on pipeline construction timelines and capacity availability. The company currently anticipates shipping approximately 400,000 barrels per month from Pecos to St James, La. The amount of crude shipped out of Pecos could be larger than Vista’s current estimate, which is dependent on the number of available train slots each month. Union Pacific has indicated they will continually evaluate their mainline capacity and provide additional service as it becomes available.

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