Enterprise Products Partners and Duncan Energy Partners have unveiled an expansion initiative at their jointly-owned Shoup and Armstrong facilities in South Texas, which provide natural gas processing and natural gas liquids (NGLs) fractionation services.

According to the companies, the upgrades are part of a more comprehensive plan to expand the partnerships’ midstream infrastructure in South Texas to handle increasing natural gas production from the growing Eagle Ford Shale play.

At the Shoup facility, located in Nueces County, Texas, the focus is on modifying existing fractionation equipment, which would increase its capacity to 77,000 barrels per day (BPD). The work is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2010.

Incremental volumes of NGLs to fill the additional capacity are expected to be supplied by six existing Enterprise natural gas plants currently feeding the Shoup facility. Production from these plants is expected to increase significantly over the next six months as the quantity and quality of the gas supplies increase.

Modifications to existing infrastructure at the Armstrong plant in DeWitt County, Texas, are designed to increase its fractionation capacity to more than 20,000BPD. Supply for the increase in fractionation capacity at Armstrong will be enhanced by an efficiency improvement at the on-site natural gas processing plant.

The improvements in processing capabilities, which are scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2010, are expected to increase NGL recoveries. Additionally, the gas plant and fractionator upgrades will allow Armstrong to handle the more liquid-rich natural gas that comprises much of the reserves in the Eagle Ford Shale.

Elsewhere in the Eagle Ford Shale, Enterprise continues to move forward on two key natural gas pipeline construction projects that are expected to provide more than 200 million cubic feet per day of incremental transportation capacity. The final segment of pipeline that completes the White Kitchen Lateral is scheduled for completion in mid-July 2010.

The 62-mile White Kitchen Lateral, which runs through the heart of the Eagle Ford Shale in the Texas counties of LaSalle and Webb, connects two existing Enterprise 20-inch diameter pipelines that lie at the northern and southern edges of the play.

Construction is also nearing completion on the first segment of the major east-west Eagle Ford Shale Mainline project. The 34-mile, 24-inch diameter pipeline, which will connect the partnerships’ South Texas pipeline in southwest LaSalle County to the White Kitchen Lateral, is expected to be completed by June 1, 2010.