EPP to build NGL pipeline linking Permian to Mont Belvieu

Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPP) plans to build a 571-mile pipeline to transport natural gas liquids from the Permian basin to the firm’s NGL fractionation and storage complex in Mont Belvieu, Tex.

The Shin Oak NGL pipeline will originate at EPP’s Hobbs NGL fractionation and storage facility in Gaines County, Tex. The 24-in. OD pipeline will have an initial design capacity of 250,000 b/d, expandable to 600,000 b/d. The project is supported by long-term customer commitments and is expected to be in service in second-quarter 2019.

In addition to mixed NGL supplies aggregated at the Hobbs facility, the Shin Oak pipeline will provide takeaway capacity for mixed NGLs extracted at gas processing plants in the Permian region, including two EPP facilities that began service in 2016 and the Orla I plant that is scheduled to begin operations in second-quarter 2018.

In tandem with EPP’s existing NGL pipelines, the pipeline will also increase the company’s capacity to transport purity NGL products from Hobbs to Mont Belvieu.

EPP’s Mont Belvieu NGL complex has 130 million bbl of underground storage capacity and 670,000 b/d of NGL fractionation capability. The firm is building a ninth fractionator at Mont Belvieu that will increase NGL fractionation capacity by 85,000 b/d following its expected completion in second-quarter 2018.

Mont Belvieu is pipeline-connected to the US petrochemical industry on the Gulf Coast and EPP’s LPG and ethane deepwater marine export terminals on the Houston Ship Channel.

“The Shin Oak pipeline project is part of [EPP’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,” said AJ Teague, chief executive officer of EPP’s general partner.