EPP completes sixth fractionator at Mont Belvieu

Enterprise Products Partners LP, Houston, said its sixth NGL fractionator at Mont Belvieu, Tex., is operational.

Expected capacity of the unit is 85,000 bb/d, increasing EPP’s total fractionation at Mont Belvieu to 485,000 b/d (OGJ, Apr. 7, 2011, p. 88). The sixth fractionator addresses increasing NGL production from domestic shale plays, the company said, including the Eagle Ford and other basins in the Rocky Mountains and Midcontinent.

Under long-term contracts, the fractionator will reduce volumes EPP said it has been diverting to its Louisiana fractionators and accommodate incremental volumes from the company’s new Yoakum natural gas processing plant in Lavaca County, Tex. (OGJ Online, May 4, 2012; Sept. 11, 2012). The first two trains of the Yoakum facility have exceeded design, said the company, processing 700 MMcfd of gas and extracting 90,000 b/d of mixed NGLs.

A.J. Teague, executive vice-president and chief operating officer of EPP’s general partner, said, “Fractionators seven and eight are already under construction at Mont Belvieu” and will increase total capacity there to about 650,000 b/d when completed in fourth-quarter 2013. At that time, he said, our system-wide fractionation capacity will exceed 1 million b/d.

EPP’s announcement also said it is “benefiting from the increased demand for propane as a domestic feedstock, in addition to export.”