-Enterprise Products Partners will temporarily halt its propane exports from Houston as it begins planned maintenance at its export facility on the ship channel June 22. Via Platts, maintenance on the 8.5 million-barrels-per-month facility will last until July 7.
-Royal Dutch Shell will become the first oil major to spin off midstream assets into a master limited partnership (MLP). Via Reuters, Shell Midstream Partners today filed for a $750 million IPO with U.S. regulators. Shell Midstream owns stakes in four onshore and offshore pipelines in Texas and Louisiana and will use proceeds from the IPO to acquire stakes in more Shell pipelines.
-Meanwhile, Valero Energy Partners — the midstream MLP spin-off of Valero Energy Corp. — on Tuesday announced its first asset acquisitions. The company will acquire the McKee Crude System in Sunray, Texas, the Three Rivers Crude System in south Texas and the Wynnewood Products System in Ardmore, Okla., from Valero for $154 million.
-Petroleum coke exports surged to 642,000 barrels per day in March, nearly breaking an all-time record. Via Reuters, domestic consumption has fallen over the past decade, but refiners have tapped into fast-growing foreign markets such as China, Japan and Turkey.
-Independent E&P firm PDC Energy announced President and CEO James Trimble would step down. Executive Vice President and COO Barton Brookman will succeed him, effectively immediately. Brookman joined PDC in 2005 after serving as vice president of operations for Patina Oil and Gas. Trimble will return to his previously held role as a member of PDC’s board of directors.
