General Partner of Summit Midstream Partners, LP Announces Development of New Bakken Shale Crude Oil Pipeline Interconnect & Storage Assets

DALLAS, July 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Summit Midstream Partners, LLC ("Summit Investments"), the privately held company that owns and controls the general partner of Summit Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE: SMLP) and also owns a 56.7% limited partner interest in SMLP, today provided a commercial update for its wholly owned operating subsidiaries, Meadowlark Midstream Company, LLC ("Meadowlark") and Epping Transmission Company, LLC ("Epping Transco").  Meadowlark is composed of the Divide Crude Oil & Water Gathering System (the "Divide System") and the Polar Crude Oil & Water Gathering System (the "Polar System"), both of which are located in the Bakken Shale Play in North Dakota, and the Niobrara Gathering & Processing System which is located in the Denver-Julesburg Basin in Weld County, CO.  Epping Transco is a newly formed subsidiary that will own and operate the Little Muddy Interconnect, described below.

Epping Transco announced today that it has reached an agreement with North Dakota Pipeline Company LLC, an affiliate of Enbridge Energy Partners, L.P. ("Enbridge"), on a new crude oil interconnect agreement pursuant to which Epping Transco will interconnect with and deliver certain of the crude oil gathered on Meadowlark's Polar and Divide systems into Enbridge's North Dakota System (the "Little Muddy Interconnect").  The Little Muddy Interconnect will provide customers on the Polar and Divide systems with increased optionality in accessing downstream markets with up to 55,000 barrels per day ("BPD") of incremental pipeline throughput capacity.

In connection with the Little Muddy Interconnect and the Basin Transload interconnect announced in June 2014, Meadowlark will expand its Epping Crude Oil Storage Facility ("Epping Storage") and Divide Crude Oil Storage Facility ("Divide Storage"), to offer additional crude oil storage services to its customers. Epping Storage will receive crude oil from the Polar and Divide systems and will also include a truck unloading rack.  Divide Storage will receive crude oil from the Divide System and will also include a multi-bay truck unloading rack.  Epping Storage and Divide Storage will each have 75,000 barrels of crude oil storage capacity, initially, and both facilities will have the ability to accommodate additional crude oil storage tanks for future potential expansions.   Both facilities are expected to be in service in the third quarter of 2015.  Customers of Epping Storage will have the option to access the COLT Hub rail terminal or Enbridge's North Dakota Pipeline System.  Customers of Divide Storage will have the option to access the COLT Hub rail terminal, Basin Transload's Columbus rail terminal, or Enbridge's North Dakota System (through Epping Storage).

Steve Newby, President and CEO of Summit Investments commented, "Our commercial team continues to find ways to enhance both the operating capability of our Bakken crude oil gathering systems and our service offerings for our customers.  With today's announcement, we add another delivery outlet for our Bakken customers to utilize, which provides them with improved reliability and greater flexibility to access the most favorable crude oil markets and optimize returns." 

"I am also excited to announce that we are enhancing our service offering in the basin by developing new crude oil storage capacity at our Epping and Divide locations.  These projects add another level of service that we can offer to our customers to facilitate their drilling programs, provide storage capacity, and ensure access to multiple crude oil markets."

About Summit Midstream Partners, LLC
Summit Midstream Partners, LLC ("Summit Investments") indirectly owns a 56.7% limited partner interest in SMLP and indirectly owns and controls the general partner of SMLP, Summit Midstream GP, LLC, which has sole responsibility for conducting the business and managing the operations of SMLP.  Summit Investments owns, operates and is developing various crude oil, associated natural gas, and water-related midstream energy infrastructure assets in the Bakken Shale in North Dakota and in the DJ Niobrara Shale in Colorado. Summit Investments is also developing natural gas gathering and condensate stabilization infrastructure in the Utica Shale in southeastern Ohio under a joint venture agreement with affiliates of MarkWest Energy Partners, L.P. and The Energy & Minerals Group.  Summit Investments is a privately held company owned by members of management, funds controlled by Energy Capital Partners II, LLC, and certain of its affiliates.

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SOURCE Summit Midstream Partners, LLC