Buckeye Partners L.P. agreed to pay $255 million to acquire 33 terminals and other pipeline assets from BP Products North America Inc. and its affiliates. The terminals have a total storage capacity of 10 million barrels of refined petroleum, and the other assets include approximately 1,000 miles of refined petroleum products pipelines.

Houston-based Buckeye Partners reported that the terminals and pipelines are located in the Midwest, Southeast and West, extending its own operations into new geographic markets.

Buckeye Partners is a partnership that owns and operates a U.S. network of refined petroleum products pipelines that extend approximately 5,400 miles throughout the U.S. Buckeye also owns 69 liquid petroleum products terminals with aggregate storage capacity of approximately 53 million barrels; operates approximately 2,600 miles of pipeline under agreements with major oil and chemical companies; owns a high-performance natural-gas storage facility in Northern California; and regionally markets refined petroleum products.

The new pipeline assets Buckeye has acquired include BP Products’ approximately 50% interest in Inland Corp., which is valued at $60 million, and is subject to approval by Inland’s other shareholders.

"This transaction is a key step in our continued expansion and geographic diversification efforts and further facilitates our participation in several key growth markets outside our current system footprint," stated Buckeye chairman and CEO Forrest E. Wylie. "This acquisition provides stable tariff and fee-based revenue streams that are supported by multi-year throughput commitments by BP. We expect the acquisition to be immediately accretive to our distributable cash flow. In addition, we have identified several opportunities for further commercial development of these assets and anticipate a smooth integration and rapid realization of operating synergies with our existing assets."

Buckeye expects the acquisition to close in the second quarter of 2011, subject to regulatory approvals, other customary closing conditions, and, with respect to BP's interest in Inland, the co-owners' right of first refusal.