Executive Summary:
Rigs: The total US rig count decreased during the week of Aug. 24 to 524.
Infrastructure: Plains All American will acquire a 55% non-operated interest in EPIC Crude Holdings, LP for $1.57B
Supply & Demand: The US natural gas pipeline sample, a proxy for change in oil production, decreased 0.9% W-o-W across all liquids-focused basins.
Rigs:
The total US rig count decreased during the week of Aug 24 to 524. Liquids-driven basins increased by 1 rig W-o-W from 405 to 406.
- Permian:
- Delaware (-2): TRP Operating, Diamondback Energy
- Midland (+2): Diamondback Energy, Alleder Inc.
- Powder River (+1): Sandridge
Infrastructure:
Plains All American (PAA) will acquire a 55% non-operated interest in EPIC Crude Holdings, LP for $1.57B, strengthening its dominant crude oil position in the Permian Basin and advancing its wellhead-to-water strategy.
Plains announced the deal last Tuesday (Sept. 2) with subsidiaries of Diamondback Energy (FANG) and Kinetik (KNTK). The assets include the 600 Mb/d EPIC Crude Pipeline linking the Permian and Eagle Ford basins to Corpus Christi, plus 7 MMbbl of storage and a marine terminal with 200 Mb/d of export capacity. PAA will fund the purchase through its recent $1.25B senior notes offering and cash on hand, and expects the deal to be immediately accretive to distributable cash flow.
The transaction aligns with PAA’s broader Permian strategy. The company owns gathering systems such as Oryx Midstream in the Permian and Ironwood Midstream in the Eagle Ford that feed directly into EPIC. The deal also adds to Plains’ significant long-haul position from the Permian to the Corpus Christi export hub, including its wholly owned Cactus I and 70%-owned Cactus II pipelines. PAA also has a 50% interest in the Eagle Ford JV with Enterprise Products (EPD).
With full ownership or a significant stake in three of the four major Permian-to-Corpus Christi pipelines, Plains can further integrate its gathering and takeaway network. The deal leaves Gray Oak as the only Permian oil pipeline to Corpus Christi in which PAA does not hold an equity interest.
Downstream, EPIC’s Corpus Christi Marine Terminal and PAA’s Eagle Ford JV Terminal will reinforce the long-haul position. Together, these assets provide export redundancy and further optionality at the waterfront. Both the Eagle Ford JV and EPIC terminals offer expansion potential through additional docks and storage, positioning Plains to capture upside from future Corpus Christi export growth.
Plains in June sold its Canadian NGL assets to Keyera for $3.75B. As PAA repositions itself as a crude-focused midstream company, investors should anticipate further bolt-on deals designed to extend integration from the wellhead to demand centers. This activity is likely to accelerate in 2H26, when PAA will be flush with cash from the close of the Keyera deal.
Supply and Demand
The US natural gas pipeline sample, a proxy for change in oil production, decreased 0.9% W-o-W across all liquids-focused basins.
Samples increased 1.8% in the Eagle Ford and 0.6% in the Gulf of America. The increases were offset by decreases of 13.5% in the Arkoma and 1.8% in the Rockies. The Rockies and the Gulf of America have a high correlation between gas volumes and crude oil volumes, whereas the Permian and Eagle Ford basins correlation is less than 45%.
As of Sept. 8, there was ~352 Mb/d of refining capacity offline, including downtime for planned and unplanned maintenance. The Total Port Arthur refinery accounts for 151 Mb/d of capacity offline due to planned maintenance lasting until Oct. 21.
Vessel traffic monitored by EDA along the Gulf Coast increased W-o-W. There were 21 vessels loaded for the week ending Sept. 6 and 17 vessels the prior week.
Regulatory and Tariffs:
Presented by ARBO
Tariffs:
Gray Oak Pipeline, LLC: Certain available capacity discounts were increased.
Magellan Pipeline Company, L.P.: The tariffs were revised to add a new product and to update the product grade document to be consistent with ONEOK’s product grade documents.
The above information is provided by ARBO’s Oil Pipeline Tariff Monitor. For more information on regulatory proceedings or tariff rates, please contact please contact Corey Brill via email at [email protected] or phone at 202-505-5296. https://www.goarbo.com/