Canadian midstream company Enbridge is honing its US Gulf coast export focus, building on its anchor purchase of a major Texas export terminal last year.
Enbridge last year acquired a large crude export terminal at Ingleside near Corpus Christi, Texas, from Moda Midstream, providing a direct dock-connected path to load very large crude carriers (VLCCs), the most efficient vessel option for long-haul exports.
Loadings at the Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center set record levels during 10 days in October, and Enbridge said it is expanding storage there by 2mn bl, which is about the size of one fully loaded VLCC.
Enbridge is increasingly focusing on the US Gulf coast as a destination for light and heavy Canadian flows. Toward that end, Enbridge recently boosted its ownership of two key pipelines from the Permian basin, the Gray Oak and Cactus II lines, that both point toward Corpus Christi's export docks.
Enbridge earlier this year boosted its stake to 58.5pc in the 900,000 b/d Gray Oak pipeline in a partnership with Phillips 66, and will assume operatorship of that line in mid-2023. This week Enbridge finalized a deal to boost its interest in the 670,000 b/d Cactus II pipeline from the Permian basin to Corpus Christi by 10pc to 30pc, in a partnership with Plains All American.
Enbridge has been pursuing its Gulf coast export strategy for years and "it's really starting to come into focus now," Enbridge liquids pipelines president Colin Gruending said. "Our puzzle pieces are coming together."
The Calgary-based firm is pursuing a two-pronged approach, with light crude routing toward Corpus Christi and heavy crude headed to the Houston area. The light crude path is a "straight shot south from the Permian," with flows routed on the Gray Oak and Cactus II lines, Gruending said.
The heavy crude path focuses on its 585,000 b/d Flanagan South pipeline, which routes crude from Illinois to Cushing, Oklahoma, and the 950,000 b/d Seaway pipeline system that moves crude from Cushing to the Houston area. Enbridge owns Seaway in a joint venture with Enterprise Products Partners.
Enbridge is also weighing a plan to build a 15mn bl crude terminal in Freeport, Texas, which would be integrated with Seaway system as a terminus for heavy Canadian crude flows and "maybe a liquid pricing point," Gruending said.
Enbridge also has an option to buy into Enterprise's planned offshore crude export terminal — the Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT) off the coast of Freeport which will be able to fully load VLCCs.
