Enterprise plans new US Gulf LPG export terminal
Enterprise Products plans to construct a new liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) export terminal on the US Gulf Coast, the company announced on Wednesday.
The facility will have the capability of handling up to VLGC (very large gas carriers) class ships. The initial loading rate for export grade propane or butane service is expected to be approximately 11,000 bbl/hour, which would equate to approximately 6 million to 6.5 million bbl/month.
Following the completion of the site evaluation at potential locations in Louisiana and Texas, this new LPG marine terminal is expected to be in service in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Upon completion of the new terminal, and the recently-announced expansion of Enterprise's existing terminal on the Houston Ship Channel, Enterprise will have aggregate capacity to load approximately 15 million to 16 million bbl/month of low-ethane propane and/or butane at its LPG marine terminals.
With the development of this second export marine terminal, Enterprise says it will be able to offer customers unparalleled operational flexibility and reliability.
Each of these terminals will have separate, dedicated pipelines that supply LPG from the partnership’s large fractionation and storage complex in Mont Belvieu, Texas. This complex includes over 100 million bbl of salt dome storage capacity and, with the completion of the eighth fractionator in the fourth quarter of 2013, more than 650,000 bpd of NGL fractionation capacity.
“We are pleased to announce the development of our second LPG export marine terminal on the US Gulf Coast,” said Michael A. Creel, CEO of Enterprise’s general partner. “The development of the new terminal was driven by continued demand from our international customers for additional supply of propane and butane.
"These facilities are supported by over 25 customers and associated long-term contracts, some of which extend into 2024," Creel continued. "Just as with our other LPG export projects, we expect that the terminal will be operating at or near its capacity upon startup. In addition to the strong demand for our LPG export services, we are also seeing interest in ethane exports.
"This new LPG marine terminal is designed with the flexibility and footprint to expeditiously add the necessary facilities to provide ethane export services as this market develops. Our Mont Beliveu complex and ATEX and Aegis ethane pipelines would complement the addition of ethane export capabilities at this new site.”
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