Infrastructure in Focus: Trucks Move Crude the “First Mile” in the Permian Basin
Trucks deliver a majority of all petroleum fuels on the “last mile” of the supply chain, but in remote production areas that lack pipeline or rail infrastructure, trucks also provide the “first mile” of transportation, hauling crude oil to centralized storage facilities that are connected to rail and pipeline infrastructure. In the Permian Basin in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico, a massive region that stretches more than 53 million acres, crude oil production is climbing sharply. 27 EIA expects Permian production to reach 2.9 million b/d by the end of 2018, accounting for nearly 30 percent of total U.S. production. Rapidly increasing production over this large geographic area is overwhelming existing crude gathering and distribution pipeline systems. As the feverish pace of new well construction outstrips the pace of gathering line expansion, trucks are filling the gap, transporting crude from the wellhead to gathering terminals or delivering crude directly to local refiners.
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