Howard Energy inks deal to buy MarkWest’s Javelina gas plant

Howard Midstream Energy Partners LLC (dba Howard Energy Partners, HEP) has entered an agreement with MPLX LP subsidiary MarkWest Energy Partners LP to acquire MarkWest Javelina Co. LLC’s Javelina cryogenic natural gas processing and fractionation complex in Corpus Christi, Tex.

“The Javelina facility is a multigenerational asset linked to stable, demand-driven refinery activity, further supporting our long-term growth strategy and diversification into new services and markets,” said Mike Howard, HEP’s chairman and chief executive officer on Dec. 29.

As part of the deal, HEP will retain existing personnel currently employed at the Javelina complex, Howard said.

While HEP said it expects the transaction to close in early 2021, the operator did not reveal a value of the proposed deal.

Commissioned in the late 1990s, the Javelina complex is equipped to process between 138-142 MMcfd of off gas it receives from Corpus Christi-area refineries, which it separates into ethane, ethylene, propane, propylene, isobutane, normal butane, butylenes, pentanes, and high-purity hydrogen for distribution as feedstock to other downstream customers, according to recent documents from the US Department of Transportation and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). The complex also returns residue gas recovered from its off-gas feedstock to refineries for reuse as fuel.

Alongside a 29,000-b/d C₂ splitter to separate ethylene from ethane recovered at the site, TCEQ documents show the Javelina complex also houses the following major installations:

• C₃ splitter.
• C₄ reactor.
• C₅ hydrodesulfurization unit.
• Demethanizer unit.
• Butylene conversion unit.
• Acetylene unit.
• Sulfurox unit, incinerator.
• Amine regeneration and tail gas treating areas.
• Pressure swing adsorption unit.
• Vapor recovery unit.