US refiners climb further into the pipeline business

摘要

Houston-Marathon Petroleum's plan to pur- chase a share of Enbridge Energy Partners' $2.6 billion Sandpiper crude pipeline project furthers a growing trend of refiners moving into the pipeline business. Tudor Pickering Holt analysts said in a note Tuesday that the theme of "refiners turn- ing into pipelines" is one to watch for 2014, as "low costs of capital encourage stable, lower-return projects that, at the same time, secure additional access to discounted crude for the [refining and marketing] segment."