Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners LP (ticker: EPD) has announced two projects centered around the Houston-area’s midstream ethylene infrastructure.
The first is a modification to one of its existing storage facilities, according to a press release. Enterprise will repurpose a Mont Belvieu, Texas, storage well to be able to draw in or release ethylene at a rate of 2,000 barrels per hour, with capacity to widen that to 4,000 barrels per hour. The storage unit is a 5.3 million-barrel cavern, and the upgrade is set to enter service in 2018, according to the release.
The second project is a new, 12-inch diameter pipeline to carry ethylene from Mont Belvieu to Bayport, connecting to Enterprise’s ethane export terminal at Morgan’s Point. That would give Enterprise the ability to export ethylene on its own with some modifications to the Morgan’s Point asset.
“As U.S. ethylene production capacity expands over the next three years, access to reliable logistics services will be needed, and Enterprise is ideally positioned to fill the gap,” said R.B. Herrscher, senior vice president of Enterprise’s petrochemical arm, in a statement. “These growth capital projects will expand our ethylene system to meet the growing needs of the petrochemical industry. These new storage and transportation assets will also complement our existing capabilities, giving us the foundation for extending our ethylene value chain even further.”
Enterprise has already managed to nab customer commitments in support of the projects, the company said in the release.
A number of petrochemical projects have been cropping up along the U.S. Gulf Coast recently. LyondellBasell Industries NV (ticker: LYB) is building a $700 million polyethylene plant in La Porte. Further south down the coast, a joint venture between Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp. (ticker: XOM) and Saudi Basic Industries Corp. have proposed a $10 billion ethane steam cracker near Corpus Christi, Texas. Meanwhile, Midland, Michigan-based Dow Chemical Co. (ticker: DOW) has wrapped up construction on its 1.5 million-ton-per-year ethylene plant in Freeport, Texas.
