Kansas City’s Tallgrass Energy L.P. announced a new project to support crude oil production in northern Colorado’s Weld County. The project is designed to move crude out of Wyoming and Colorado and eventually carry it to the Cushing hub in Oklahoma.
The Hereford Project will include about 30 miles of new 12-inch pipeline near the border between Wyoming and Colorado.
The company said sufficient interest arose during the existing open season of the Pony Express line and the company decided to expand capacity from origin points in the two states to destinations along the system.
The Hereford Lateral, as it is being called will connect crude oil gathering facilities near Hereford, Colorado with the existing Pony Express facilities near the Pawnee origin facility in Weld County. The Hereford Lateral should be operational and in-service by July of this year. The expansion capacity on the existing Pony Express system will be in-service by May 2020.
Pony Express is launching a limited open season to allow interested parties the opportunity to commit to the Hereford Project. The Hereford Open Season will run from May 1, 2019, to May 15, 2019. The deadline for bids is May 15, 2019.
The Pony Express is a 760-mile line that originates in Guernsey, Wyoming and runs through Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas connecting with three refineries before terminating in Cushing, Oklahoma. It has been operational since 2014 and has a design capacity of 320,000 barrels a day.
Cushing is North America’s crude oil hub and a key trading and pricing point for NYMEX WTI.