Enterprise said the new unit is operating in excess of its nameplate capacity of 75,000 barrels per day (BPD), and it increases total nameplate capacity at the partnership’s Mont Belvieu facility to 380,000 BPD.
The new unit provides the fractionation capacity needed to accommodate increasing NGL production from domestic shale plays, including the Eagle Ford and other basins in the Rocky Mountain and Mid-continent regions.
Enterprise’s general partner executive vice president and COO Jim Teague said rising domestic NGL production from the shale plays has led to a cost advantage for the US petrochemical industry favoring domestic NGLs over imported crude oil-based derivatives.
"With petrochemical companies announcing more conversions, expansions and new construction projects that will consume additional ethane, and producers announcing more discoveries of shale plays with NGL-rich natural gas reserves, we have started construction of a sixth NGL fractionator with a nameplate capacity of 75,000 BPD at our Mont Belvieu complex," Teague said.
Service at the sixth fractionator is projected to begin in early 2013, at which time the unit will be fully contracted.
With the help of additional capacity provided by the fifth and sixth fractionators, the company will process mixed NGLs at its Mont Belvieu complex that are currently being diverted to Louisiana, as well as incremental volumes from the partnership’s new Yoakum natural gas processing facility in Lavaca County, Texas, which is scheduled to begin operations in mid-2012.
