Enterprise Plans Gulf Coast Export Facility - Analyst Blog

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. EPD announced its plan to construct a fully refrigerated ethane export facility on the Texas Gulf Coast.

The facility is expected to have a total loading rate of about 10,000 barrels per hour or about 240 thousand barrels per day (mbpd).The partnership has carried out long-term contracts to support the development of the facility and is slated to commence operations in the third quarter of 2016.

The development of the ethane facility highlights Enterprise's commitment to serve growing demand for higher U.S. energy needs. Currently, U.S. ethane production capacity exceeds U.S. demand by 300 mbpd and is estimated to exceed demand by about 700 mbpd by 2020.

The ethane export facility will be incorporated in Enterprise's Mont Belvieu complex. The facility will comprise over 650 mbpd of natural gas liquid NGL fractionation capacity and 100 million barrels of NGL storage capacity.

Enterprise's recently completed ATEX ethane pipeline links the Mont Belvieu complex to the increasing supplies of ethane from the Marcellus and Utica shale regions. The Mont Belvieu complex obtains NGL supplies from the major producing basins across the U.S. Enterprise's integrated NGL system will offer supply assurance and diversification to the export facility.

Enterprise, a leading master limited partnership MLP, is engaged in providing a wide range of midstream energy services to the producers and consumers of natural gas, NGL, and crude oil.

Enterprise is viewed as a core holding in an MLP portfolio, given its string of organic growth projects, potential acquisitions, strong balance sheet and solid liquidity position. The partnership is one of the largest fully-integrated midstream service providers with a positive long-term outlook given its significant geographic and business diversity.

Enterprise carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Stocks in the oil and gas industry looking good with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) include Range Resources Corp. RRC, Unit Corp. UNT and Helmerich & Payne, Inc. HP.