Enbridge has agreed to acquire Salt Creek Midstream’s crude gathering business for $600 million. The deal gives Enbridge 100 percent ownership of the Orla and Wink North gathering systems (blue lines below) plus a 50 percent stake in Delaware Crossing (purples line), a joint venture with Chevron. These assets collect crude from the Delaware Basin in New Mexico and Texas and deliver it to terminals near Orla and Wink, where volumes can access long-haul pipelines bound for Gulf Coast markets and beyond.
The Orla and Wink North systems together have recently moved roughly 90,000 barrels per day. Orla (western system) has handled around 30,000 barrels per day while Wink North (eastern system) has ramped to approximately 60,000 (see graphs below). Both the 12-inch Orla system and the 16-inch Wink North system have ample spare capacity. Key producers feeding the systems include Permian Resources, Devon, Civitas, and others on both sides of the state line.
The Delaware Crossing JV (purple line) has recently been transporting 55,000 to 60,000 barrels per day northward into the Wink area (see graph below). Its 16-inch trunkline also has ample spare capacity. Chevron, the 50 percent JV partner, is a major counterparty and operates a large gathering system (black lines) that feeds the line.
Financial data from Salt Creek’s FERC filings show the wholly owned gathering systems generated about $20 million in EBITDA in 2025. Recent financials for the Delaware Crossing JV are not available, although a 50 percent interest contributed $3 to $4 million in net income to Noble Midstream in 2020. Volumes on Delaware Crossing have increased materially since then, so the JV likely generates higher earnings today. Even so, back-of-the-envelope math still makes it hard to get below a double-digit EBITDA multiple for the acquisition. Enbridge undoubtedly plans to improve the economics by attracting additional system volumes and capturing other synergies.
Enbridge has framed the purchase as completing a wellhead-to-water value chain. The company already holds a majority interest in Gray Oak Pipeline (pink line), a 30 percent stake in Cactus II (orange line), and full ownership of the large Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center export terminal (blue dot). Gray Oak and Cactus II are essentially full today, so the acquisition is unlikely to be driven by an immediate need to fill those lines. Ingleside, however, shows significant available export capacity (see graph below) when comparing flows to the facility’s nameplate export figures. Directing more barrels from the newly acquired gathering systems onto Enbridge-controlled routes could marginally help utilize that open terminal space.
The strategic logic of the acquisition may also be a longer-term play. Permian production continues to climb while pipeline capacity to the Gulf Coast is tightening. Plainview’s Permian Basin supply-and-demand balance shows only about 250,000 barrels per day of current open pipeline capacity to the Gulf Coast as of May 2026 (see graph below). While Plains’ Cactus III pipeline can expand by an additional roughly 200,000 barrels per day, Permian volumes could fill all Gulf egress capacity within the next couple of years if oil prices stay elevated. Owning wellhead connections will strengthen Enbridge’s position if it pursues building a new long-haul egress project, ultimately feeding additional volumes into already available export capacity at Ingleside and capturing more of the value chain from the well to the water. The acquisition therefore may be less like a short-term volume play and more like positioning for the next phase of potential Permian takeaway constraints.
