BP Midstream pipeline volumes rise in 4th quarter, down for 2020

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)