NEW YORK, Feb 25 (Reuters) - BP Midstream Partners LP
shipped about 5% more oil on its pipelines in the last
three months of 2020 than in the previous quarter, but overall
volumes fell on the year due to fuel demand destruction caused
by the coronavirus pandemic, company executives said on
Thursday.
Volumes of crude oil from offshore pipeline systems,
including the 400,000 barrel-per-day Mars crude oil pipeline off
the Louisiana coast, jumped 11% in the three months ended on
Dec. 31 compared with the previous three months and inland
pipelines were up 4%.
Still, oil volumes for all of 2020 slipped as travel
restrictions sparked by the global COVID-19 health crisis
slashed energy demand and hurricanes Delta and Zeta shut in
offshore oil production last fall.
"Even with the impacts of COVID-19 and multiple weather
events in the Gulf of Mexico during a historic Atlantic
hurricane season, full-year 2020 gross throughput was only
around 4% lower compared to 2019," Craig Coburn, BP Midstream's
chief financial officer, said on a company earnings call.
BP Midstream's River Rouge pipeline, which carries refined
products to BP's Whiting, Indiana, refinery, and Diamondback
pipeline, which transports diluent to Canada, both suffered
lower volumes in the fourth quarter, Coburn said.
BP Midstream's net income for the fourth quarter was $40.8
million, about 10% less than the previous quarter, Coburn said.
The decline was due largely to decreased River Rouge,
particularly in December, as a resurgence of coronavirus cases
in parts of North America reduced demand for the pipeline.
In 2021, BP Midstream expects offshore pipeline volumes to
increase from the previous year and on-land pipelines to stay
flat.
(Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)