Permian faces pipeline crunch

The west Texas oil and gas play could see growth crimped if major infrastructure projects aren’t completed in time

The Permian tight oil field is growing fast—maybe too fast. With oil and gas output surging from the west Texas superbasin at a more rapid rate than expected this year, producers increasingly fear pipeline builders won't be able to keep up with output. This could cause costly bottlenecks and even throttle growth. All signs point to continued strong production growth from the Permian. Output jumped from 2.62m barrels a day last September to 3.16m b/d in April—an average of more than 80,000 b/d per month, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. The upward rig count trend implies yet more is to come. Drillers added 44 new rigs across the Permian in just the first three mon