Crestwood Midstream Partners Announces Loading of 1,000th Unit Train at Its Bakken COLT Hub Facility

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Crestwood Midstream Partners LP CMLP (“Crestwood”) announced today the loading of the 1,000^th crude oil unit train at its COLT Hub in Epping, North Dakota. The COLT rail facility commenced service in June 2012 with an original capacity to load 80,000 barrels per day (“Bpd”). The facility has undergone two major expansions since 2012 and has a current capacity to load up to 160,000 Bpd. Crestwood's COLT rail facility is one of the largest crude-by-rail loading terminals in the U.S., based on daily volumes loaded, currently averaging approximately 120,000 Bpd.

Crestwood's COLT Hub plays a vital role as a central logistics point for crude oil produced in the Bakken Shale. The COLT Hub receives crude oil through its 12-bay truck unloading facility and from pipeline connections with Hiland Partners' Market Center pipeline, Summit Midstream's Meadowlark pipeline and Tesoro's High Plains pipeline. The COLT Hub has 1.2 million barrels of storage capacity and can also deliver crude oil to the Enbridge and Tesoro pipeline systems, at the Beaver Lodge terminal, through Crestwood's COLT Connector pipeline.

In September 2014, Crestwood handled approximately 260,000 Bpd in the Bakken Shale representing more than 20% of the total crude oil being produced in the play. These volumes were collectively handled through the COLT Hub, COLT rail facility, COLT Connector pipeline, the Arrow crude gathering system located in McKenzie and Dunn Counties, and Crestwood's Bakken trucking operations acquired in 2014.

Crestwood is currently constructing additional release and departure rail tracks at the COLT Hub. This expansion will accommodate additional unit trains and will provide greater flexibility around the scheduling of trains coming into and departing the facility on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (“BNSF”) rail system. The additional tracks are expected to be placed into service by the end of November 2014.

“We are pleased to announce this crude loading milestone at the COLT Hub,” stated Bill Gautreaux, President of Crestwood's Liquids and Crude Business Unit. “The COLT Hub is a major distribution point for crude oil produced in the Bakken. Refiners on the East and West Coasts are much less reliant on foreign imports and gain direct access to higher quality and lower cost feedstock. This accomplishment would not be possible without the tremendous working relationship we have established with our customers including Tesoro Refining and Marketing, U.S. Oil & Refining, Sunoco Logistics, Flint Hills Resources, Statoil and BP Products North America. Reaching the 1,000^th unit train loading in such a short time frame since commissioning the facility is a testament to the strength of the Bakken play, BNSF Railroad and our customers' willingness to devote substantial investment to the play. We appreciate our employees who operate the facility every day and are committed to providing excellent customer service throughout the year, even during periods of extreme winter weather like we experienced earlier in the year,” added Gautreaux.

“North Dakota recently surpassed a major milestone of one million barrels of crude production per day,” said Ron Ness, President of the North Dakota Petroleum Council. “In addition, the industry has proven that this amount of production can be moved to market efficiently. Rail has played a big role in those movements and is now making other value added energy projects possible.”

“The COLT Hub and rail facility continues to be the centerpiece for our Bakken Shale midstream value-chain strategy,” commented Robert G. Phillips, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Crestwood. “We have made significant investments in the Bakken Shale in recent years due to our belief that the Bakken play is an important part of America's drive to energy independence. The Bakken Shale continues to provide strong producer economics and continued drilling activity to sustain future production growth and the COLT Hub provides a critical nexus to refinery markets on both coasts that prefer to source their refineries with Bakken crude. Despite the recent reduction in global crude prices and the narrowing of the spread between Brent and WTI price indices, we believe the COLT Hub, along with our other crude gathering, trucking, storage and terminal assets, are well positioned to provide valuable midstream services for many years.”

About Crestwood Midstream Partners LP

Houston, Texas, based Crestwood Midstream Partners LP CMLP is a master limited partnership that owns and operates midstream businesses in multiple unconventional shale resource plays across the United States. Crestwood Midstream Partners LP is engaged in the gathering, processing, treating, compression, storage and transportation of natural gas; storage, transportation and terminalling of NGLs; and gathering, storage, terminalling and marketing of crude oil.

About Crestwood Equity Partners LP

Houston, Texas, based Crestwood Equity Partners LP CEQP is a master limited partnership that owns the general partner interest, including the incentive distribution rights and an approximate 4% limited partner interest of Crestwood Midstream Partners LP. In addition, Crestwood Equity Partners LP's operations include a natural gas storage business in Texas and an NGL supply and logistics business that serves customers in the United States and Canada.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to Crestwood Midstream's expectation that the release and departure tracks at the COLT Hub will be completed in the fourth quarter 2014. Crestwood Midstream believes that its expectations and forecasts are based on reasonable assumptions. No assurance, however, can be given that such expectations and forecasts will prove to have been correct. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations and forecasts, anticipated results or other forward-looking information expressed in this press release, including risks and uncertainties regarding future results, capital expenditures, liquidity and financial market conditions, insufficient cash from operations, adverse market conditions, the extent and success of customer drilling efforts, construction delays, and governmental regulations. For a more complete list of these risk factors, please read Crestwood Midstream's filings with the SEC, which are available on Crestwood Midstream's Investor Relations website at www.crestwoodlp.com or on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.