Bayou Bridge Oil Pipeline

This article is part of the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor and the Center for Media and Democracy.

Sub-articles:

FrackSwarm portal Coal terminals Coal transport and infrastructure Oil and gas pipelines LNG terminals Pipeline construction costs Methodology and data notes

Bayou Bridge Oil Pipeline is an oil pipeline in the United States.

Location

The pipeline runs from Nederland, Texas, to Lake Charles, Louisiana. A proposed expansion would extend to St James, Louisiana.

Loading map...

{"type":"ROADMAP","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"mappingservice":"googlemaps3","width":"400px","height":"300px","centre":{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":30.009837,"lon":-92.471639,"icon":""},"title":"","label":"","icon":"","visitedicon":"","lines":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","strokeColor":"#FF0000","strokeOpacity":"1","strokeWeight":"2","pos":[{"lat":29.933489,"lon":-93.994216},{"lat":30.097592,"lon":-93.730544},{"lat":30.103537,"lon":-93.326796},{"lat":30.141979,"lon":-92.665406},{"lat":30.073079,"lon":-91.943055},{"lat":30.122985,"lon":-91.67389},{"lat":30.021719,"lon":-90.856649}]}],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"wmsoverlay":false,"copycoords":false,"static":false,"zoom":6,"layers":[],"controls":["pan","zoom","type","scale","streetview","rotate"],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"resizable":false,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"markercluster":false,"clustergridsize":60,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clusteraveragecenter":true,"clusterminsize":2,"imageoverlays":[],"kml":[],"gkml":[],"searchmarkers":"","enablefullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":false,"locations":[]}

Project Details

• Owner: Phillips 66 (40%), Energy Transfer Partners (30%), Sunoco Logistics (30%)
• Current capacity: 280,000 barrels per day
• Length: 49 miles
• Status: Operating
• Start Year: 2016

Background

Bayou Bridge is a 30-inch, 49-mile operating pipeline that delivers crude oil from terminal hub facilities in Nederland, Texas, to terminal facilities and refineries in Lake Charles, Louisiana. It began operations in 2016.

Lawsuit challenging permit

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) issued a permit for the pipeline on April 3, 2017, and denied requests for reconsideration on May 1 and May 16, 2017. As of June 2017, other permits were pending from the state Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. On May 11, 2017, U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, asked the corps' New Orleans District to commission a full environmental impact statement investigation.

On May 31, 2017, attorneys with the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, on behalf of the residents and environmental groups, filed a lawsuit challenging the DNR permit in the 23rd Judicial District Court. It says DNR officials did not adequately address the potential effects of accidents or spills from the pipeline on the largely African-American residents of St. James, many of whom live on streets with a history of being blocked during emergencies at existing nearby oil, gas and chemical facilities.

The suit also claims that state officials did not take into account the potential effects of spills on wetlands in areas where the pipeline crosses part of the Louisiana coastal zone, as required by Louisiana law. Additionally, the suit says the DNR discounted the potential effects of a spill in Bayou Lafourche, a drinking water source for many Lafourche Parish residents, by not requiring deep directional drilling techniques to build the pipeline across the waterway. The suit also alleges the DNR did not consider and assess alternate pipeline routes and alternatives, as required by law.

Expansion Project Details

• Owner: Phillips 66 (40%), Energy Transfer Partners (30%), Sunoco Logistics (30%)
• Proposed capacity: 480,000 barrels per day
• Length: 163 miles
• Status: Cancelled
• Start Year: 2016

Expansion Background

A proposed 163-mile expansion would connect the pipeline to the crude hub in St James, Louisiana. The pipeline is a joint project by subsidiaries of Phillips 66 Partners, Energy Transfer Partners LP and Sunoco Logistic Partners LP. It would cross 11 Louisiana parishes and over 700 acres of wetlands, and watersheds that supply drinking water for up to 300,000 people.

The expansion plan was first announced in 2015. There have been no expansion development updates since 2015 and the project is presumed to be cancelled.