Medallion Midstream was the largest privately held crude oil gathering and transportation system in the Midland Basin of West Texas, operating more than 1,200 miles of pipeline with approximately 1.3 million barrels per day of capacity before its acquisition by ONEOK in late 2024 for $2.6 billion. The Medallion brand no longer operates as an independent entity — the assets are now integrated into ONEOK’s Permian Basin midstream platform — but the name continues to generate search traffic from producers, analysts, and industry professionals tracking the Permian crude gathering market and its ownership history.
Origins: The Energy & Minerals Group and Laredo Petroleum
Medallion Gathering & Processing, LLC was developed by The Energy & Minerals Group (EMG), an energy-focused private equity firm founded by John Raymond in 2006 and headquartered in Houston. EMG built the Medallion Midland Basin crude gathering system to serve Permian Basin producers needing to move crude oil from wellpad to long-haul takeaway pipelines, with a focus on the Midland Basin — the eastern sub-basin of the Permian, centred on Midland, Texas.
Medallion operated a newly constructed crude oil gathering and transportation system designed to support substantial volume growth, offering producers access to multiple Permian Basin long-haul takeaway pipelines and end-markets, providing flow assurance and enabling them to maximise realised pricing. Laredo Petroleum, an independent Permian producer, held a 49% interest in the Medallion Midland Basin system alongside EMG’s 51% controlling stake. The partnership reflected the standard midstream development model of the early Permian shale build-out: a producer anchors a new gathering system as a foundation shipper and takes an equity stake to reduce its transportation cost basis.
At the time of its first sale, Medallion was the largest privately held crude oil transportation system in the Midland Basin, with over 800 miles of pipeline, approximately 670,000 dedicated acres, and total areas of mutual interest approaching four million acres.
The GIP Acquisition: $1.825 Billion in 2017
In October 2017, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) — one of the world’s largest infrastructure-focused private equity funds — agreed to acquire 100% of Medallion Gathering & Processing from EMG and Laredo Petroleum for a cash purchase price of $1.825 billion plus additional cash consideration linked to GIP’s realised profits at exit. The transaction closed on 30 October 2017. Laredo received approximately $830 million in net proceeds for its 49% interest.
Medallion retained its name and operated as a GIP portfolio company, headquartered in Irving, Texas. The leadership team remained in their current roles and invested alongside GIP in the transaction. EMG retained the Medallion Delaware Basin operation — a separate crude oil and natural gas gathering business in the western Permian sub-basin — which continued as a separate EMG portfolio company.
Under GIP ownership, Medallion expanded its Midland Basin pipeline network significantly. By the time of its second sale in 2024, the system had grown from approximately 800 miles to more than 1,200 miles of pipeline, with capacity increasing to approximately 1.3 million barrels per day and crude oil storage of approximately 1.5 million barrels — reflecting the Permian Basin’s sustained production growth throughout the period.
The ONEOK Acquisition: $2.6 Billion in 2024
In August 2024, ONEOK — one of North America’s largest diversified midstream companies — announced the acquisition of Medallion Midstream from GIP for $2.6 billion in cash, representing approximately 6.3 times estimated 2025 EBITDA. The Medallion deal was announced simultaneously with ONEOK’s agreement to acquire GIP’s 43% interest in EnLink Midstream for approximately $3.3 billion — a combined transaction valued at $5.9 billion that represented one of the largest midstream deals of 2024.
The acquisition of Medallion included more than 1,200 miles of crude oil gathering pipelines providing approximately 1.3 million barrels per day of capacity and approximately 1.5 million barrels of crude oil storage in the Permian Basin. For ONEOK, Medallion provided the crude oil gathering infrastructure to complement its existing NGL and natural gas processing assets in the Permian — completing a vertically integrated platform covering gas processing, NGL fractionation, and crude gathering in the same basin. ONEOK closed the Medallion acquisition in November 2024.
ONEOK expects the Medallion and EnLink transactions to deliver annual synergies of approximately $250 million to $450 million within three years, driven by commercial synergies across its expanded and integrated Permian Basin platform. The Medallion brand has not been retained as a standalone operating entity within ONEOK — the pipeline system is now integrated into ONEOK’s Permian crude gathering division, ending seven years of operation as a GIP portfolio company. This trajectory mirrors the broader consolidation of the top midstream companies in the Permian, as large-scale operators absorb independently developed gathering systems built during the shale growth phase.
GIP’s Exit: A Case Study in Infrastructure Returns
GIP’s Medallion investment illustrates the infrastructure fund model applied to midstream energy assets. GIP acquired Medallion for $1.825 billion in 2017 when the Permian was in the early phase of its post-downturn recovery, held the asset through seven years of Permian production growth and pipeline capacity expansion, then sold to ONEOK for $2.6 billion in 2024 — a gross return of approximately $775 million on the base consideration alone, before accounting for the profit-linked additional consideration embedded in the 2017 sale agreement. The compounding effect of Permian production growth on gathering volumes — and therefore EBITDA — drove the value appreciation over the holding period.
GIP — which was acquired by BlackRock in a $12.5 billion transaction that closed in 2024 — has since been absorbed into BlackRock’s infrastructure investment platform, bringing Medallion’s former owner under the same umbrella as one of the world’s largest asset managers. The Medallion sale to ONEOK was one of GIP’s final major portfolio exits as an independent fund manager, alongside the concurrent EnLink transaction.
Asset Summary
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full name | Medallion Gathering & Processing, LLC (Medallion Midstream) |
| Asset type | Crude oil gathering and transportation — Permian Basin Midland sub-basin |
| Headquarters | Irving, Texas, USA |
| Founded / developed by | The Energy & Minerals Group (EMG) |
| Original co-owner | Laredo Petroleum (49%) |
| GIP acquisition | October 2017 — $1.825 billion (plus profit-linked additional consideration) |
| Pipeline at GIP acquisition | 800+ miles | ~670,000 dedicated acres |
| ONEOK acquisition | November 2024 — $2.6 billion (~6.3x 2025E EBITDA) |
| Pipeline at ONEOK acquisition | 1,200+ miles | ~1.3 million bpd capacity | ~1.5 million bbls storage |
| Current status | Integrated into ONEOK’s Permian Basin crude platform — Medallion brand retired |
| Delaware Basin assets | Retained by EMG as a separate entity — not part of either GIP or ONEOK transaction |
The Permian Crude Gathering Market in 2026
The Medallion system is now part of ONEOK’s broader Permian crude gathering platform, which competes with Plains All American Pipeline — which acquired the EPIC crude pipeline for $2.9 billion in 2024 — and other major Permian crude midstream operators. The Permian Basin continues to be the dominant US crude production growth region, and the gathering infrastructure underpinning that production has been a primary focus of midstream consolidation. Medallion’s growth trajectory — from 800 miles at its first sale to 1,200 miles at its second — illustrates the capital intensity and volume growth potential that attracted successive infrastructure investors to the Midland Basin. For a broader view of the infrastructure built to move that crude, the top pipeline projects reshaping global supply in 2026 provide context for how Permian takeaway capacity has evolved alongside gathering systems like Medallion.
What is Medallion Midstream?
Medallion Midstream was the largest privately held crude oil gathering and transportation system in the Permian Basin’s Midland sub-basin, operating more than 1,200 miles of pipeline with approximately 1.3 million barrels per day of capacity. The Medallion brand no longer operates independently — ONEOK acquired the system from Global Infrastructure Partners for $2.6 billion in November 2024 and integrated it into its Permian Basin midstream platform.
Who owned Medallion Midstream?
Medallion was originally developed by The Energy & Minerals Group (EMG) with Laredo Petroleum holding a 49% stake. Global Infrastructure Partners acquired 100% of Medallion from EMG and Laredo for $1.825 billion in October 2017. GIP then sold Medallion to ONEOK for $2.6 billion in November 2024. GIP itself was acquired by BlackRock in a separate $12.5 billion transaction that also closed in 2024.
How much did ONEOK pay for Medallion Midstream?
ONEOK paid $2.6 billion in cash for Medallion Midstream, announced in August 2024 and closed in November 2024. The price represented approximately 6.3 times Medallion’s estimated 2025 EBITDA. The Medallion deal was part of a larger $5.9 billion combined transaction with GIP that also included ONEOK acquiring GIP’s 43% stake in EnLink Midstream for approximately $3.3 billion.
What happened to Medallion Midstream after the ONEOK acquisition?
After ONEOK closed the acquisition in November 2024, Medallion’s pipeline system was integrated into ONEOK’s Permian Basin crude gathering and transportation platform. The Medallion brand was retired as a standalone operating entity. The Medallion Delaware Basin assets — a separate crude and natural gas gathering system in the western Permian sub-basin — were not part of the GIP or ONEOK transactions and remained under EMG ownership.
How large was the Medallion Midstream pipeline system?
At the time of the ONEOK acquisition, the Medallion system comprised more than 1,200 miles of crude oil gathering pipeline in the Permian Basin’s Midland sub-basin, with capacity of approximately 1.3 million barrels per day and approximately 1.5 million barrels of crude oil storage. The system had grown from approximately 800 miles and 670,000 dedicated acres at the time of GIP’s 2017 acquisition, reflecting Permian Basin production growth over the intervening seven years.