EPP starts up seventh Mont Belvieu fractionator

Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPP) has started operations at its seventh NGL fractionator at Mont Belvieu, Tex., east of Houston.

This seventh unit and an eighth at the site are being developed as part of a joint venture with Western Gas Partners LP, an affiliate of Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Houston. EPP will operate the new units and own 75%, while Western Gas holds 25% in each of the two fractionators.

The new unit, which can fractionate up to 85,000 b/d of NGL, increases total fractionation capacity at EPP’s Mont Belvieu site to 570,000 b/d (OGJ Online, Nov. 1, 2012). The company said the new fractionator will “facilitate increasing NGL production from domestic shale plays, including the Eagle Ford in South Texas, and other basins in the Rocky Mountain and Midcontinent.”

EPP Chief Executive Officer Michael A. Creel said work on an eighth fractionator is ahead of schedule and should be in service by the middle of this year’s fourth quarter. Fractionators Nos. 7 and 8 will increase total capacity at Mont Belvieu to 655,000 b/d, compared with 400,000 b/d 3 years ago.

System-wide, said Creel, EPP’s fractionation capacity will expand to more than 1 million b/d with the addition of the two new NGL fractionators.