Buckeye Partners plan to build a new crude oil pipeline that will connect the Permian Basin to Corpus Christi. This new South Texas Gateway line will deliver crude oil and condensate from the originators in Wink and Midland Texas to the existing Buckeye Partners refining and export facilities in Corpus Christi. Property owners in the following counties may be impacted by the Buckeye Partner’s pipeline project: Live Oak, San Patricio and Nueces.
The pipeline is expected to be 24 inches in diameter and have the total capacity of transporting up to 400,000 barrels per day with multiple segregations. Buckeye Partners expects the new South Texas Gateway pipeline to be in service by 2019.
In late 2015, the United States ended the ban that had once made it impossible to sell American oil to any country except Canada. Since the ban has been lifted, it has led to a very large increase in oil exports, especially in 2017. Buyers from all over the world are purchasing the new American supplies. In Texas, Corpus Christi’s port has begun a $1 billion capital investment program that involves deepening and widening the shipping channel for bigger tankers to dock and load. Crude exports from Corpus Christi have already increased from an average of 68,000 barrels a day during the first half of 2016 to 384,000 barrels daily as of this past April in 2017, according to a report by RBN Energy.
Buckeye Partners is one of the companies that has made major investments in the area. Since 2015, Buckeye has invested $1.2 billion in docks and other export facilities in Corpus Christi. Buckeye told the New York Times that they still have plans to put more than $1 billion into additional investments, including the new South Texas Gateway pipeline.
Texas Condemnation Projects 