HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD) today announced the construction of a new 571-mile pipeline to transport growing volumes of natural gas liquids (“NGL”) from the Permian Basin to Enterprise’s NGL fractionation and storage complex in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The Shin Oak NGL pipeline will originate at Enterprise’s Hobbs NGL fractionation and storage facility in Gaines County, Texas. The 24-inch diameter pipeline will have an initial design capacity of 250,000 barrels per day (“BPD”), expandable to 600,000 BPD. This project is supported by long-term customer commitments and is expected to be in service in the second quarter of 2019.
In addition to mixed NGL supplies aggregated at the Hobbs facility, the Shin Oak pipeline will provide takeaway capacity for mixed NGLs extracted at natural gas processing plants in the Permian region, including two Enterprise facilities that began service in 2016 and the Orla I plant that is scheduled to begin operations in the second quarter of 2018. In tandem with Enterprise’s existing NGL pipelines, this new pipeline will also increase the company’s capacity to transport purity NGL products from Hobbs to Mont Belvieu.
Enterprise’s Mont Belvieu NGL complex is the largest of its kind in the world, offering customers access to approximately 130 million barrels of underground storage capacity, and 670,000 BPD of NGL fractionation capability. Enterprise is building a ninth fractionator at Mont Belvieu that will increase NGL fractionation capacity by 85,000 BPD following its expected completion in the second quarter of 2018. Mont Belvieu is pipeline-connected to the expanding U.S. petrochemical industry on the Gulf Coast, as well as Enterprise’s industry-leading LPG and ethane deepwater marine export terminals on the Houston Ship Channel.
“The Permian Basin is currently the hottest play in North America and is expected to continue its strong growth for years to come,” said A.J. “Jim” Teague, chief executive officer of Enterprise’s general partner. “The Shin Oak pipeline project is part of Enterprise’s larger plans in the Permian to leverage our integrated midstream assets to link supplies of cost-advantaged U.S. hydrocarbons to the largest domestic and global NGL markets. This additional pipeline takeaway capacity to Mont Belvieu will provide Permian producers the flow assurance they need to continue the unfettered development of their reserves with confidence.”
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. is one of the largest publicly traded partnerships and a leading North American provider of midstream energy services to producers and consumers of natural gas, NGLs, crude oil, refined products and petrochemicals. Our services include: natural gas gathering, treating, processing, transportation and storage; NGL transportation, fractionation, storage, and export and import terminals; crude oil gathering, transportation, storage, and export and import terminals; petrochemical and refined products transportation, storage, export and import terminals and related services; and a marine transportation business that operates primarily on the United States inland and Intracoastal Waterway systems. The partnership’s assets include approximately 49,300 miles of pipelines; 260 million barrels of storage capacity for NGLs, crude oil, refined products and petrochemicals; and 14 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage capacity.
This press release includes “forward-looking statements” as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein that address activities, events, developments or transactions that Enterprise and its general partner expect, believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations, including required approvals by regulatory agencies, the possibility that the anticipated benefits from such activities, events, developments or transactions cannot be fully realized, the possibility that costs or difficulties related thereto will be greater than expected, the impact of competition, and other risk factors included in Enterprise’s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates. Except as required by law, Enterprise does not intend to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
