NuStar to move 600K b/d crude

Texas-based NuStar Energy is targeting to move 600,000 barrels per day (b/d) of land-locked crude from its Permian basin in 2024 to refineries and export facilities in southern Texas and along the Gulf Coast, CEO Brad Barron said Feb. 1. The company’s Permian Crude System delivered 584,000 b/d of WTI barrels in the 4Q of 2022, 13% higher compared to 4Q of 2021, Barron said. The Permian Crude System is a series of interconnecting short-haul pipelines in the Midland and Colorado City areas of the basin that use pipelines owned by other midstream players to ship volumes to refineries in southern Texas and the Gulf Coast, NuStar’s executive president for business development and engineering, Danny Oliver, said separately in a call Feb. 1. The company does not own a long-haul pipeline to move WTI from the Permian basin to markets, Oliver said. Despite 2022's “historic inflation and volatility” made it a bumpy ride for midstream players in the U.S., NuStar’s total crude throughput was 1.41M b/d last year compared with 1.40M b/d in 2021. A slowdown in the rate of crude production growth in the Permian Basin could potentially be a headwind for midstream players in 2023. “Last year we forecast growth ... but the rate was lower,” Oliver said.  “(P)roducers are active and we expect to see some growth there.” Mixed signals have emerged on the Permian Basin growth pattern. ExxonMobil said it was on track to reach production of 1M b/d of oil equivalent in 2027 compared with 560,000 b/d in Q4 2022. Chevron producers said production growth in 2023 will be “a bit lower” than the 16% increase achieved during the previous year. S&P Global Commodity Insights expects Permian crude and condensate production to climb to 5.7 million b/d by end-2023 and 6.3 million b/d by end-2024, up from 5.5 million b/d in January. “We can load Suezmax vessels with a crude loading rate of 30,000 barrels/hour,” Oliver said. A Suezmax tanker can ship 800,000-1 million barrels of crude. (Hellenic Shipping 02/03/23) NuStar targets to move 600,000 b/d of Permian crude to US Gulf Coast in 2024 | Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide

Background: NuStar Energy L.P., a publicly traded master limited partnership based in San Antonio, is one of the largest independent liquids terminal and pipeline operators in the nation. NuStar currently has about 10,000 miles of pipeline and 63 terminal and storage facilities that store and distribute crude oil, refined products, renewable fuels, ammonia and specialty liquids. The partnership’s combined system has approximately 49M barrels of storage capacity at its facilities, and operations in the United States and Mexico.