American Midstream acquires Costar Midstream for $470m

American Midstream Partners has acquired Costar Midstream from Energy Spectrum Partners VI for around $470m.

Costar operates the Longview gas gathering, processing and fractionation complex, as well as the Chapel Hill gas gathering, processing and fractionation system, both located in east Texas.

The company also operates the Yellow Rose gas gathering and processing system in the Permian basin.

It also has a crude oil gathering system project underway in the Bakken oil play in North Dakota, a rail terminal in east Texas and an off-spec condensate blending facility in the Permian basin.

Located in McKenzie County, the Bakken oil gathering system is expected to start initial operations in the fourth quarter of 2014 or the first quarter of 2015.

The pipeline will have operating capacity of more than 40,000bpd with a downstream connection to the Tesoro Logistics pipeline.

Costar is in the process of executing gathering and transportation agreements with other producers in the area.

American Midstream plans to invest $70m-$80m in the next three years to complete the Bakken, Longview rail and Permian off-spec condensate blending development projects.

Commenting on the acquisition, American Midstream Partners executive chairman, president and CEO Steve Bergstrom said: "The Costar deal is consistent with our growth strategy to pursue third-party acquisitions that enhance our current footprint of natural gas and crude oil midstream assets.

"With Costar’s recently completed Permian gas gathering and processing assets and the Bakken crude oil system that will be online shortly, coupled with the partnership’s existing natural gas and crude oil assets in the Eagle Ford, American Midstream is now operating in a majority of the key energy resource plays in the US."