With the slowdown in drilling due to several issues, including quarantines related to the coronavirus, combined with frantic construction of pipelines over the last four years, pipeline shortages may soon be over. A trade agreement with China, which had promised to jumpstart petroleum exports to that country, has been dampened by that same virus due […]
Midstream’s Shifting Course
For the first 150 years of the oil industry, rig counts were a strong predictor of imminent production levels and, hence, midstream takeaway capacity needs. One rig punched one hole. The resulting production would immediately flow into a pipeline. Over the last decade, however, multiple horizontals, multipad drilling, and other outgrowths of the frac revolution […]
Midstream: in Charts and in Images
The year 2019 will be remembered as Midstream’s Year. As we near year-end in what might be the most eventful year ever in Permian midstream activity, we look at two kinds of snapshots. One, some recent graphics highlighting the impact of a record amount of completed pipeline construction. And two, some literal snapshots—high resolution images […]
The Art of Control
By Paul Wiseman To be a Basin business and be a mere four years old and have almost 100 employees—this is not the typical track for a Permian startup of recent vintage. But at Van Zandt Controls, Larry Richards and team have focused small to grow big. The news is always full of stories of […]
Playing Catchup
Of oil and gas’s three industry sectors—upstream, midstream, and downstream—midstream has been where the action’s at in 2018, and it’s driving decisions in both upstream and downstream as well. By Paul Wiseman Anyone who has ever held the business end of a garden hose while someone else—around the corner and out of sight—controlled the faucet […]
Getting the Resources Gone
Takeaway is what the midstream sector is all about. Getting the crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids away from the wellheads and on their way to the processing plants. Sounds simple, but it’s a world unto itself, and it’s a world that’s undergoing dramatic change. by Jesse Mullins The upstream sector has its […]
The Pipes, They Are A’Callin’
The Pipes, They Are A’Callin’ We are living in the age of the Big Buildout. Infrastructure is having a boom of its own. We share, from our recent “News Reviews” coverage, six months’ worth of pipeline announcements: November 2017 Midland-based Oryx Midstream Services will complete a new regional crude oil pipeline serving the Delaware Basin […]
The Downturn-Resistant Middle
By Paul Wiseman In spite of the precipitous fall in oil prices and the contingent drop in rig counts, production, particularly in the Permian Basin, is still at record levels as wells drilled in the last five years continue to produce. With production so high the midstream sector is still growing even in the […]