Enterprise Products Partners plans to build a 250,000 b/d NGL pipeline between the Permian Basin and the company's terminal in Mont Belvieu, Texas, with flows expected begin in the second quarter of 2019, it said Monday.
The 571-mile, 24-inch-diameter Shin Oak NGL pipeline will originate at Enterprise's Gaines County, Texas, storage and fractionation facility.
The pipeline will be expandable to 600,000 b/d and is supported by long-term commitments, the company said.
The project will add takeaway capacity at two existing Enterprise natural gas processing plants and the Orla I plant scheduled to come online in the second quarter of 2018.
"The Permian Basin is currently the hottest play in North America and is expected to continue its strong growth for years to come," CEO Jim Teague said in a statement.
"The Shin Oak pipeline project is part of Enterprise's larger plans in the Permian to leverage our integrated midstream assets to link supplies of cost-advantaged US hydrocarbons to the largest domestic and global NGL markets," he added.
In Mont Belvieu, the company operates eight fractionators with a combined capacity of 670,000 b/d. It is building a ninth fractionator with a capacity of 85,000 b/d that is expected to begin operations in Q2 2018.
The facility has about 130 million barrels of cavern storage capacity and is connected to pipelines moving NGLs to Gulf Coast petrochemical producers and export terminals on the Houston Ship Channel.
Most Gulf Coast NGLs were trading about 1 cent higher Monday morning, with April non-LST propane at 65.875 cents/gal, butane at 80.125 cents/gal and natural gasoline bid $1.14/gal and offered $1.1575/gal. Ethane was flat to Friday's Platts assessment at 25 cents/gal.
