Knight Warrior LLC, a Texas limited liability company, has reached several key milestones and is moving forward with its 160-mile pipeline. The pipeline, which will link the emerging East Texas Eaglebine/Woodbine crude oil resource play to the Houston refining and export markets, is scheduled for startup in the second quarter of 2016. The project is backed by shipper commitments, including a transportation agreement with Vitol, a diversified multinational energy company, and SEI Energy LLC, a natural gas and crude oil marketer/producer services company with offices in Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Oklahoma.

Knight Warrior also announced it has awarded contracts to Hatch Mott MacDonald LLC, Contract Land Staff LLC and Apex TITAN Inc. for engineering and design, land management and environmental services, respectively.

The Knight Warrior East Texas project will consist of a 160-mile, 16-inch diameter pipeline originating in Madison County continuing south through Walker, Grimes, Montgomery and Harris counties. The pipeline will have an initial capacity of 100,000 bbl/d, will be expandable up to 200,000 bbl/d and will serve Eaglebine/Woodbine crude oil producers via two origination stations located near North Zulch and Madisonville, with a third station near Roans Prairie planned to accommodate future production growth in the area. The pipeline will have the capability to segregate and batch crude oil in order to help producers capture value for this premium product. The pipeline is estimated to cost approximately $300 million, subject to final pipeline design and shipper commitments, and is anticipated to be financed using a combination of debt and equity.

Knight Warrior LLC is a subsidiary of Oklahoma City-based Blueknight Energy Partners LP (Nasdaq: BKEP).