Crestwood's Footprint Continues To Grow With Expansion Of The COLT Hub

EPPING, ND: Strategically located in the heart of the Bakken and Three Forks shale plays, construction of the COLT Hub began in May 2011 and the facility went into service just one year later. Today the COLT Hub, owned and operated by Crestwood Midstream Partners LP, serves as a point of liquidity for the distribution of Bakken crude oil throughout North American markets by providing customers with crude oil storage and connectivity to the BNSF Railway Company and ties in with four major pipeline systems.

The COLT Hub brings in crude oil produced in Williams and McKenzie counties by pipeline and truck; provides crude oil handling, on-site blending and storage services through on-site tankage; and access to multiple downstream crude oil markets through pipeline and unit train loading capabilities. COLT also provides pipeline services into and out of the rail facility through the COLT Connector, a 21-mile, bidirectional, crude oil transmission pipeline. This pipeline connects the COLT Hub to a point of interconnect with multiple existing and planned crude oil pipelines at Rangeland's Dry Fork terminal near the Beaver Lodge/Ramberg junction, eight miles south of Tioga, including interconnects to the Tesoro and Enbridge pipeline systems.

With 1.2 million barrels of crude oil storage and two 8,700 foot rail loops, the COLT Hub can accommodate 120-car unit trains and is now capable of moving up to 160,000 barrels per day by rail.

On May 6, 2014 Crestwood released their first-quarter earnings and gave this update: "During the first quarter 2014, we completed various COLT Hub and Arrow expansion projects that resulted in higher Bakken crude oil volumes being handled. We also acquired a crude oil and produced water transportation fleet based in Watford City, North Dakota, which added capacity for approximately 22,000 Bbls/day of crude oil and water truck transportation volumes. This bolt-on acquisition further interconnects our Bakken value chain platform and complements the two crude oil unit trains we expect to receive in the first quarter 2015."

Loadings at COLT Hub in the second quarter are expected to average 20-25% higher than the first quarter.

Having recently signed long-term agreements with BP Products North America, Inc. and with Statoil Marketing & Trading, the COLT expansion is supported. Crestwood expects to complete the installation of new release and departure tracks at the COLT Hub in the third quarter 2014, which will provide greater operational flexibility to their customers and the BNSF Railroad. It will also improve utilization rates.

"We are keenly focused on growing our crude oil and NGL businesses," said Robert G. Phillips, chairman of Crestwood's general partner.

With so much current activity and planned near-future activity, we can expect to hear much more about Crestwood and their growing footprint in the Bakken.