Lone Star NGL, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer, is set to build a new 150,000 barrel per day capacity natural gas liquids fractionation facility (NGL fractionation facility) at Mont Belvieu in Texas.

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Image: Energy Transfer announces plans to build its seventh NGL fractionation facility. Photo courtesy of blackzheep/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

The new NGL fractionation facility, which will be the seventh for the company, is slated to enter into operations in the first quarter of 2020.

Energy Transfer said that the new fractionator has been fully subscribed by various long-term contracts. It further added that the seventh NGL fractionation facility will deliver the capacity required to supplement incremental fractionation demand in excess of volumes feeding its earlier built six fractionators.

Currently, Lone Star is constructing Fractionator VI, which is scheduled to be commissioned during the first quarter of 2019. The sixth NGL fractionation facility, which is also contracted fully with long-term commitments, will have a capacity of 150,000 barrels per day.

Upon completion of the sixth and seventh fractionators, Lone Star will be capable of fractionating more than 900,000 barrels per day at Mont Belvieu, said Energy Transfer.

In July 2018, Lone Star commissioned Fractionator V, which has a capacity of 120,000 barrel per day fractionators. The fifth NGL fractionation facility was built with an investment of around $385m.

Apart from the new 150,000 barrel per day capacity fractionator at Mont Belvieu, Lone Star will also be expanding the Lone Star Express Pipeline in the Permian Basin with the addition of a new 24-inch 566.5km long pipeline in Texas. The extended pipeline will span from Lone Star’s pipeline system near Wink to Lone Star Express’ 30-inch pipeline south of Fort Worth.

Energy Transfer, in a statement, said: “This new pipeline will provide capacity for the significant transportation commitments Lone Star has secured from the Delaware and Permian Basins. This new pipeline is expected to be in service by early in the fourth quarter of 2020.”

The Lone Star Express Pipeline, with a present capacity of 507,000Bbls/d, is made up of nearly 856km of NGL transmission pipelines. The interstate NGL pipeline sources NGLs from processing plants in the Permian Basin and Barnett Shale and delivers them to NGL storage and fractionation facilities in Mont Belvieu.