MPLX, the master limited partnership of Marathon Petroleum, has acquired the Mt. Airy Terminal an eastern US Gulf Coast export terminal in Louisiana, from Pin Oak for around $450m.
Image: Pin Oak offloads Mt. Airy Terminal in Louisiana to MPLX. Photo: courtesy of Pin Oak Terminals.
The Mt. Airy Terminal, which is located on the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, has four million barrels of fully-leased storage capacity along with an operational 120,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) deep-water ship dock.
Further, it has been designed to enable expansion of its storage capacity to 10 million barrels and has also been given approval for construction of a second 120,000 bpd deep-water ship dock.
The Mt. Airy Terminal is located near nine lower-Mississippi refineries with one of them being the Garyville refinery owned by Marathon Petroleum.
The US Gulf Coast export terminal can handle various refined products and also residual fuel and bunker products to offer optionality and flexibility of feedstocks and finished products in a single place.
MPLX president Michael J. Hennigan said: “This acquisition provides an excellent platform for MPLX, as production growth and refining output increase the requirement for additional export capacity.
“With a prime location on the Mississippi River and proximity to over 2 million barrels per day of refining capacity, this terminal will serve as a platform to meet growing export needs, expand our third-party business, and give MPLX tremendous flexibility to help its customers meet upcoming International Maritime Organization fuel standards.”
According to Pin Oak, the Mt. Airy Terminal is its first asset it has developed, financed, constructed, and operated. It had acquired the greenfield site of the US Gulf Coast export terminal in 2012 with an aim of developing it into a full-service transportation hub along the Mississippi River.
Under the terms of the deal Pin Oak, which is a partnership between Dauphine Midstream and Mercuria Energy Group, will retain an economic interest in the Mt. Airy Terminal.
Pin Oak CEO C. Mike Reed said: “Our team is very proud to have built a premier storage and logistics facility in Louisiana, and this transaction further validates our development strategy and ability to execute.
“We delivered top-tier logistics solutions for our customers, and we are pleased that our dedicated employees will continue to provide excellent service to our valued customers.”
In May, Pin Oak broke ground on the Pin Oak Corpus Christi liquid bulk export terminal in Texas.