This will fill in a little more about the dynamics involved with NEW Pipelines built bringing Crude into Cushing from places such as the Bakken... as well as takeaway capacity headed to the Gulf.. As I've stated before.. We are not running full bore OUT of Cushing yet.. but when the Gulf refineries fire up.. that may change.. as well as the need to find more storage along the gulf Padd 3.. which has like Double what Padd 2 (Midwest including Oklahoma..) has.



http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-cushing-oil-inventories-fell-210617424.html

Why Cushing inventories declined considerably in 2014 

Inventories have followed a reverse trend in 2015 compared to 2014, when they had actually been declining as the year progressed (see the graph below) before inching upwards towards the later part of the year. They touched their lowest level in about six years in 2014.

As new infrastructure came online, it enabled more crude oil to move out of Cushing. As a result, inventories at Cushing had been in a declining trend for the better part of 2014.

The new infrastructure included TransCanada’s (TRP) Keystone XL Pipeline and Cushing Marketlink Pipeline, Enterprise Product Partners’ (EPD) and Enbridge’s (ENB) joint venture Seaway Pipeline, and Magellan Midstream Partners’ (MMP) Longhorn Pipeline.

As a result of these pipelines, refiner demand from the Gulf Coast sucked crude oil supplies from Cushing down to as low as ~17.9 MMbbls at the end of July 2014. Currently, stocks have rebounded to 54.4 million barrels

Also, the new Seaway Twin Pipeline started functioning. On December 21, it delivered crude oil to Jones Creek in Texas. The pipeline more than doubles the original pipeline’s capacity from Cushing to the Gulf Coast.

What has helped Cushing inventories reverse their declining trend? 

While new pipelines helped drain crude oil from Cushing, some new pipelines also brought crude oil into Cushing and helped refill stocks there—mostly in the later part of 2014. One of these pipelines is the Pony Express. It’s operated by Tallgrass Energy Partners (TEP). This pipeline brings Bakken crude oil from Guernsey, Wyoming, to Cushing.

Also, Enbridge’s (ENB) Flanagan South Pipeline Project runs from Flanagan, Illinois, to Cushing. This pipeline started shipments earlier in December 2014.

One of the other main reasons for the high inventory numbers is record US production. Last week, inventories beat the previous record-high levels from January 2013 (see Part 6 of this series).

EPD and MMP are part of the Alerian MLP ETF (AMLP) and they make up ~17.5% of the ETF. In the next part of this series, we’ll discuss last week’s movements in crude oil prices.