Crude oil producers in the prolific Permian Basin have plenty of options to move their barrels, especially since pipeline capacity currently exceeds production, but not every route out of the basin is equal. One of the hottest destinations for Permian crude is Houston, which boasts an attractive mix of refining and export demand. In today’s RBN blog, we look at the pipelines that transport Permian crude to Houston, discuss why it’s such a vital spot, and preview our latest Drill Down Report.

Through the early years of the Shale Era, produced water gathering systems in the Permian were mostly small, simple and focused solely on transporting the salty, petroleum- and mineral-tainted water emerging from wells to nearby saltwater disposal wells. In the 2020s, though, these systems — now mostly owned and operated by third-party produced water specialists — have been becoming larger, more interconnected, and more likely to include at least some water recycling and reuse. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll continue our look at big, far-reaching produced water systems in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

It's an integrated energy market that stretches across the North American continent, from Texas and Florida to the mountains of British Columbia and Canada’s industrial heartland in Ontario/Quebec — a cross-border network so deeply connected, it functions as one massive, interdependent system for oil, natural gas and NGLs. That system is undergoing major shifts and challenges, driven not only by changing supply/demand dynamics and evolving infrastructure within the market itself, but also by powerful external forces, including regulatory policies and political pressures. That’s why we couldn’t think of a better time — or a better place — to host RBN’s 19th School of Energy than in Calgary next month. In today’s RBN blog — a blatant advertorial — we’ll highlight how our upcoming conference will dig into how the interconnected energy landscape is changing and why understanding those shifts is more critical than ever. You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet!

Expectations for electric vehicle (EV) adoption in the U.S. took a sharp detour into uncharted territory earlier this month when President Trump signed the landmark budget reconciliation bill into law. Known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), the law dramatically scales back EV subsidies, eliminates penalties for automakers that don’t meet fuel-efficiency standards, and significantly restricts state-level zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) programs. In today’s RBN blog, we look at why the law is likely to slow the pace of EV adoption and impact forecasts for vehicle sales and gasoline demand — a key topic in the just-published Future of Fuels report from our Refined Fuels Analytics (RFA) practice.

Perhaps the most hyped-up topic in energy these days is how much electricity new data centers will need to keep up with the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI). And that’s prompting some big questions, such as where all the power will come from and how much natural gas demand will rise. But another crucial question may be whether these data centers will pull that power from the grid or generate it themselves on-site. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll discuss the benefits and challenges of each approach.

The Bakken Shale needs more natural gas takeaway capacity, North Dakota wants to encourage more in-state consumption of Bakken-sourced gas, and two entities — WBI Energy and a combo of Intensity Infrastructure Partners and Rainbow Energy Center — have each proposed similar (but not identical) cross-state pipelines that would help achieve those aims. But, assuming that two new pipelines would be overkill, which of the two proposals is the more likely to advance to a final investment decision (FID), construction and operation? In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the two competitors and the state of North Dakota’s impending decision on which pipeline project to support.

There’s a lot going on in the Permian produced water space lately. Crude-oil-focused production in the prolific shale play is generating vast and increasing volumes of produced water that needs to be recycled or injected into disposal wells. State regulators, concerned about injection-related seismic activity, are tightening their rules, ramping up oversight and cracking down. Produced water gathering systems are being expanded and long-distance pipelines are being planned and built. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the latest developments and where things are heading.

Associated gas production in the Bakken Shale continues to increase and, with more NGL pipeline capacity coming online and a new option on the horizon, there’s a gunfight brewing between two of the U.S.’s largest midstreamers. At one end of a dusty Wild West street stands the sheriff in town, ONEOK, which recently completed an expansion of its Elk Creek NGL Pipeline. At the other is a renowned midstreamer from Texas, Kinder Morgan, which is staking a claim in the Rockies by converting its Double H crude oil pipeline to NGL service — renaming it Hiland Express when it does — and planning an NGL header pipeline. As we discuss in today’s RBN blog, Kinder is the first to challenge ONEOK in this space.

The Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) has been transformative. Originally built as a west-to-east pipeline, its main job was to give Rockies natural gas a way to reach premium markets in the Midwest and the Northeast. But by the time it was constructed, surging production in the Marcellus and Utica shales had overwhelmed the need for Rockies gas in the East, and REX evolved to become a major outlet for Appalachian gas to the Midcontinent. Now, REX has moved beyond its first two incarnations, and its owner, Tallgrass Energy, has announced plans to build a greenfield pipeline that would connect REX and the markets it serves with the prolific Permian Basin, 900 miles south of the existing mainline. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll discuss REX’s history, where it stands today, and how a new pipeline connection with the Permian might fit into its evolving strategy.

The budget reconciliation bill signed into law July 4 by President Trump — known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) — dramatically scales back a number of clean-energy tax credits and adds a new layer of complexity for some projects, leading to a lot of doom and gloom around clean-energy initiatives, but the new legislation is a big positive for the carbon-capture industry. In today’s RBN blog, we look at how changes to the 45Q tax credit could help advance carbon-capture efforts while also providing a boost to producers of crude oil and blue hydrogen.