Plains All American Looks For Commitment For New Pipeline

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P.’s (NYSE:PAA) subsidiary recently announced that it has gained sufficient customer interest for carrying out a binding open season for crude oil transportation from the Permian Basin to the Corpus Christi/Ingleside area.

Plains All American’spipeline will include a combination of existing pipelines and two new pipelines. The first pipeline is anticipated to extend from Wink South to McCamey, TX, and the second pipeline from McCamey to the Corpus Christi/Ingleside area.

The pipeline, subject to permits and regulatory approvals, is expected to come online by the third-quarter 2019.

Benefits from Open Season

Open season is a very common term used in the pipeline space. Building new pipelines requires heavy capital investment on the part of pipeline operators. Open season will help Plains All American to gauge the demand for new pipelines in a particular area beforehand.

Successful open season ensures recovery of investment made in building the new pipelines, as pipeline operators’ benefit from long-term service agreement with drillers.

Reasons for new Pipeline in Permian

The increasing Exploration & Drilling activities in the Permian Basin will no doubt create opportunity for midstream service providers. Plains All American, through its subsidiary, is planning to gain from the likely increase in demand for midstream services.

Permian Basin is rich in reserves and expected to drive the United States crude oil production in 2017. Per a recent release from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S crude oil production will average 9.4 million barrels per day (MMbpd) in the second half of 2017 — 340,000 barrels per day (bpd) more than in the first half of 2017.

Permian production is anticipated to grow to 2.6 MMbpd in the second half of 2017, a 260,000 bpd increase from the first half.

The expected improvement in production activities in Permian Basin has resulted in more midstream investment in this region. In addition to Plain All American Pipeline, other pipeline operators are also expanding midstream services in the region.

In second-quarter 2017, Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. (NYSE:ETP) announced the completion of successful open season for its Permian Express 3 Pipeline. It is expected to provide transportation of up to 100,000 barrels per day, with service commencing in the fourth quarter of 2017. The company will conduct another season to find prospective customers to transport another 200,000 bpd from this region.

In April 2017, Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE:KMI) and DCP Midstream, LP (NYSE:DCP) announced that inking of a letter of intent for the development of the proposed Gulf Coast Express Pipeline Project. This Kinder Morgan project will transport increased natural gas production from the Permian Basin to growing markets along the Texas Gulf Coast. The project is designed to transport up to 1,700,000 dekatherms per day of natural gas through the 430 miles of 42-inch pipeline from the Waha area to Agua Dulce, TX.

Price Movement

Shares of Plains All American have underperformed the industry in the last three months. The partnership’s shares lost 7.3%, wider than the industry’s decline of 4.1%.

Zacks Rank

Plains All American currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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