Enterprise's NGL and Petchem Distribution and Export Machine -- RBN Energy -- August 3, 2023

Locator: 45310NGL. 

RBN Energy: Enterprise's NGL and petchem distribution and export machine. Archived.

Enterprise Products Partners doesn’t just extract mixed NGLs from associated gas at processing plants, transport that Y-grade to the NGL hub at Mont Belvieu, and fractionate NGLs into “purity products” like ethane, propane and butanes. The midstream giant also distributes purity products to Gulf Coast steam crackers and refineries, converts propane to propylene at its two propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plants, distributes ethylene and propylene, transports propane and butane to wholesale markets across much of the eastern half of the U.S., and exports a wide range of products — ethane, LPG, ethylene and propylene among them — from two Enterprise marine terminals on the Houston Ship Channel. (Another export terminal in Beaumont, TX, is in the works.) Talk about a value chain! In today’s RBN blog, we continue our series on NGL networks with a look at Enterprise’s NGL and petrochemical production, distribution and export assets. 

This blog series is about the select group of U.S. midstreamers that own and operate entire, soup-to-nuts NGL networks that take NGLs from the wellhead to either their ultimate domestic consumer — petchem plants, refineries, wholesale markets, etc. — or to waterside terminals that load purity products (and, in Enterprise’s case, ethylene and propylene too) onto ships for transport overseas. In Part 1, we looked at Energy Transfer’s NGL-related assets in Texas and in Part 2 we shifted our focus to the company’s network in the Northeast. Next up was Targa Resources — in Part 3 we looked at the company’s gas gathering and processing assets, Grand Prix NGL pipeline system, fractionators in Mont Belvieu, and the Galena Part LPG export terminal.

Last time, in Part 4, we started our examination of Enterprise’s NGL network, which includes:

• More than 10 Bcf/d of net gas-processing capacity, about three-quarters of which is located in the Permian, the Eagle Ford, the Piceance and the Green River production areas (the latter in Colorado and Wyoming, respectively). Within the Permian, Enterprise owns 13 plants with a combined capacity of 2.9 Bcf/d, with another three plants totaling 900 MMcf/d under construction. In the Eagle Ford, it owns eight plants with 2.2 Bcf/d, and in the Rockies, it has another 3.6 Bcf/d.
• An array of pipelines to move mixed NGLs (Y-grade) from processing plants to Mont Belvieu, including the Shin Oak Pipeline (67% owned by Enterprise) and the Chaparral Pipeline system, both of which run from the Permian. (An expansion of Enterprise’s Y-grade pipeline capacity from the Permian to Mont Belvieu is in the works, but it remains to be seen if that will involve a looping of Shin Oak, the repurposing of other pipelines and/or some other approach.) There’s also the Rocky Mountain portion of Enterprise’s sprawling Mid-American Pipeline (MAPL) system, which transports Y-grade from the Rockies to Enterprise’s Hobbs NGL hub near the Texas-New Mexico border. From Hobbs, NGLs can flow east to Mont Belvieu on the company’s Seminole NGL Pipeline. (Enterprise owns all or part of several other Y-grade pipelines too, as well as the long-distance, ethane-only Appalachia-to-Texas Express pipeline, better known as ATEX — see Part 4 for details.)
• Thirty-eight underground salt caverns at Mont Belvieu with a combined capacity of 130 MMbbl (yes, 130 MMbbl!) for Y-grade, purity products and other commodities — more than half of the total storage capacity at the NGL hub. It also owns either 100% or 75% stakes in 12 fractionators at Mont Belvieu with a combined capacity of more than 1.2 MMb/d; Enterprise’s net plant capacity there is just over 1.1 Mb/d. The company also owns (or in one case, leases) NGL and related product storage capacity at other locations, including a total of 12.4 MMbbl at Almeda (southwest of Houston) and Markham, TX; and 11 MMbbl of Enterprise-owned storage in Louisiana.
• A number of pipeline systems that transport purity products long-distance to markets far from Mont Belvieu. These include the Dixie Pipeline, which moves propane and butane to markets in the Southeast U.S.; the Enterprise Products Pipeline System (better known as TEPPCO), which runs from the Gulf Coast to various points in the Midwest and Northeast and, among other things, transports LPG and natural gasoline (the latter to the Chicago area for eventual use as diluent); and portions of the MAPL pipeline system known as the North System and Conway South that move purity products — mostly propane, but also ethane/propane mix and butane — from the NGL hub at Conway, KS, to refineries, petchem plants and propane markets in the Midwest and Great Plains states. (Again, see Part 4 for details.)

Much, much more at the link with great graphics, as usual.