September 09, 2019 [HoustonChronicle] – San Antonio pipeline opearator NuStar Energy is using two newly completed pipeline expansion projects to move diesel and other fuels into northern Mexico.

In a Wednesday morning statement, the company reported that it completed expansion projects along its Valley Pipeline and Laredo Pipeline. Both expansion projects were done as part of an agreement with San Antonio refining company Valero Energy to move gasoline, diesel and other refined products south of the border. .

The Valley Pipeline expansion project allows diesel and other fuels from two Valero refineries in Corpus Christi to be moved to storage tanks in Edinburg, the Port of Harlingen and the Port of Brownsville. From there, the fuels can be hauled by either 18-wheelers or tankers into Mexico.

Expansion along the Laredo Pipeline included a horizontal drilling project under the Rio Grande River allowing NuStar to move diesel from the Valero refinery in Three Rivers to a recently reactivated storage terminal on the Mexican side of the border in Nuevo Laredo.

“We are pleased that we were able to utilize and expand existing assets to help address the supply imbalance in Northern Mexico that is expected to continue growing and exceeding that country’s infrastructure,” NuStar CEO Brad Barron said in a statement. “In addition to the agreement with Valero on the Nuevo Laredo project, there was an outstanding response from customers on the Valley Pipeline expansion with our recent open season being fully subscribed and resulting in seven-year contract terms.”

The expansion projects were completed at the same time as a project to link NuStar’s export terminal at the Port of Corpus Christi to the Plains All American Pipeline LP-owned Cactus II Pipeline, a project to move crude oil from the Permian Basin of West Texas to the Gulf Coast.

“We are very excited about the continued growth of our South Texas Crude System, which is once again experiencing throughput at near the historically high levels we saw in the Eagle Ford’s heyday in 2015, and the increased utilization of our Corpus Christi export terminal, which is now handling the leading edge of the impending wave of Permian long-haul crude oil,” Barron said. “And we expect continued growth for both Permian and Eagle Ford barrels going forward.“

Founded in 2001 and headquartered in San Antonio, NuStar Energy has more than 1,500 employees across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

With 9,800 miles of pipeline and more than 61 million barrels of storage capacity, the company reported making $206 million of net income on $1.96 billion of revenue in 2018.

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