December 2012, Vol. 239 No. 12

In The News

Inergy Midstream To Acquire COLT Crude Oil Logistics Hub

Inergy Midstream, L.P. plans to buy Rangeland Energy, LLC, owner and operator of the COLT crude oil rail terminal, storage, and pipeline facilities, for $425 million.

The COLT Hub is located near the town of Epping in Williams County, ND in the heart of the Bakken and Three Forks shale oil-producing areas. The COLT Hub provides producers, refiners, and marketers with the largest open-access crude oil distribution hub in North Dakota.

With 720,000 barrels of crude oil storage and two 8,700-foot rail loops, the COLT Hub can accommodate 120-car unit trains and is capable of moving more than 120,000 bpd by rail. COLT’s customers can source product via the eight-bay truck unloading rack, the COLT Connecter, a 21-mile, 10-inch bi-directional pipeline that connects the COLT Hub to the Enbridge and Tesoro pipelines at Dry Fork (Beaver Lodge/Ramberg junction), the Banner gathering system, and a planned connection to the Bear Tracker Energy gathering system.

The acquisition is an expansion of Inergy Midstream’s shale-focused infrastructure portfolio and extends Inergy’s refinery and producer-services businesses. The COLT Hub has a first-mover advantage in the Bakken and should lead to incremental crude oil and NGL investments.