Enterprise to build Shin Oak pipeline to transport NGL from Permian Basin
American natural gas and crude oil pipeline company Enterprise Products Partners L.P. will build a new 571-mile, 24-inch diameter pipeline to transport natural gas liquids (NGL) from the Permian Basin to Enterprise’s NGL fractionation and storage complex in Mont Belvieu, Texas.
The Shin Oak NGL pipeline will originate at Enterprise’s Hobbs NGL fractionation and storage facility in Gaines County, Texas. The pipeline will have an initial design capacity of 250,000 barrels per day (bpd), expandable to 600,000 bpd. The project is expected to be in service in the second quarter of 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 natural gas processing plants in the Permian region, including two Enterprise facilities that began service in 2016 and the Orla I plant that is scheduled to begin operations in the second quarter of 2018.
In tandem with Enterprise’s existing NGL pipelines, this new pipeline will also increase the company’s capacity to transport purity NGL products from Hobbs to Mont Belvieu.
Enterprise’s Mont Belvieu NGL complex is the largest of its kind in the world, offering customers access to approximately 130 million barrels of underground storage capacity, and 670,000 bpd of NGL fractionation capability. Enterprise is building a ninth fractionator at Mont Belvieu that will increase NGL fractionation capacity by 85,000 bpd following its expected completion in the second quarter of 2018. Mont Belvieu is pipeline-connected to the expanding US petrochemical industry on the Gulf Coast, as well as Enterprise’s industry-leading LPG and ethane deepwater marine export terminals on the Houston Ship Channel.
“The Shin Oak pipeline project is part of Enterprise’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. This additional pipeline takeaway capacity to Mont Belvieu will provide Permian producers the flow assurance they need to continue the unfettered development of their reserves with confidence,”said AJ “Jim” Teague, chief executive officer of Enterprise’s general partner.
