Enterprise Announces Expansion Projects at Houston Ship Channel

HOUSTON (P&GJ) – Enterprise Products Partners announced three additional expansion projects that will increase its capacity to load crude oil, LPG, and polymer grade propylene (PGP) from its Enterprise Hydrocarbon Terminal on the Houston Ship Channel.

The Enterprise Hydrocarbon Terminal on the Houston Ship Channel. (source: Enterprise Products Partners)

Currently, Enterprise’s nameplate LPG loading capacity is approximately 660,000 barrels per day (“BPD”). Previously, Enterprise announced a project to add 175,000 bpd of LPG loading capacity, which is currently under construction and expected to be completed late third quarter of 2019. The additional projects announced today will increase incremental LPG loading capacity by another 260,000 bpd and are expected to be in service in the third quarter of 2020. When completed, the projects will give EHT nameplate capacity to load up to almost 1.1 million bpd of LPG, or approximately 33 million barrels per month.

In response to record demand for PGP by international markets, the partnership said, it is adding refrigeration facilities at its Houston Ship Channel terminal that will enable Enterprise to load up to an incremental 67,200 bpd, or approximately 2 million barrels per month, of fully refrigerated PGP. With this expansion project, Enterprise will increase flexibility by offering customers the capability to co-load fully refrigerated PGP and LPG onto the same vessel. This expansion is expected to be available in the fourth quarter of 2020.

As part of the expansion, Enterprise is also building an eighth dock at its Houston Ship Channel terminal with the capability to load approximately 840,000 bpd of crude oil, increasing the partnership’s nameplate export capacity for crude oil at the Houston Ship Channel to 2.75 MMbpd, or nearly 83 million barrels per month. Expected to begin service in the fourth quarter of 2020, the new dock will be able to accommodate a Suezmax vessel, the largest ship class that can navigate the Houston Ship Channel.

“In total these expansions will enable us to load an incremental 1.3 million BPD of LPG, polymer grade propylene and crude oil," said A.J. “Jim” Teague, chief executive officer of Enterprise’s general partner. "Our integrated midstream system, including our Houston Ship Channel terminal, is providing Texas products with access to the highest value markets, including international markets."

Teague cited recent legislation ensuring two-way traffic along the Houston Ship Channel as a key factor in the partnership's final investment decision. 

Enterprise estimates that by 2025 exports of U.S. crude oil will increase from 3 million BPD to 8 million BPD and the domestic LPG export market will double from 1.4 MMbpd to 2.8 MMbpd. Much of this growth is being driven by increasing production from the Permian Basin of Texas.

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. is one of the largest publicly traded partnerships and a major North American provider of midstream energy services to producers and consumers of natural gas, NGLs, crude oil, refined products and petrochemicals. Its assets include approximately 49,200 miles of pipelines; 260 million barrels of storage capacity for NGLs, crude oil, petrochemicals and refined products; and 14 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage capacity.

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