When Texas-based Lotus Midstream formed in early 2018, company founders Mike Prince and Emily Baker went straight to work leveraging their heavyweight oil and gas relationships—especially their ties to Energy Transfer. The two had left the midstream behemoth a short time earlier after serving in executive positions. Now, they were now ready to launch their own infrastructure and logistics business squarely in the Permian, where a massive buildout was underway to handle soaring crude oil volumes.

Reese Energy Consulting today is following the latest news from Lotus Midstream, which—only five years later—has sold its crude oil gathering and transportation pipeline and storage assets to Energy Transfer for $1.45 billion. The deal also includes a 50% ownership stake in Lotus’ fractionation plants near Odessa. In short order, Lotus managed to acquire and build a sizeable, integrated midstream platform that began with construction of the 650-mile Wink to Webster pipeline capable of transporting 1 MMBD from the Permian to the Texas Gulf. A large acquisition followed from Occidental with the Centurion Pipeline System. One of two primary gateways from the Permian to the Cushing Hub, Centurion includes 3,000 miles of pipe, 1.5 MMBD of capacity, and two storage terminals. Bloom on, Lotus.