Enterprise Products Partners LP's Mentone cryogenic natural gas processing plant in Loving County, Texas, and isobutane dehydrogenation (iBDH) plant in Mont Belvieu, Texas, were both recently placed in service.
The cryogenic natural gas processing plant has the capacity to process 300 MMcf/d of natural gas, and extract more than 40,000 bpd of NGLs. Supported by a long-term acreage dedication agreement, the new plant facilitates the continued growth of natural gas and NGLs from the Delaware Basin.
"Mentone is our seventh natural gas processing plant in the Delaware Basin and increases our total capacity in the Permian Basin to more than 1.6 MMcf/d of natural gas processing and more than 250,000 bpd of NGL extraction," said Brent Secrest, executive vice president and chief commercial officer of Enterprise's general partner. "These assets provide critical infrastructure to facilitate growing natural gas and NGL production in the region, which is expected to increase by more than 60 percent over the next five years. The addition of Mentone also enhances access to our fully-integrated midstream network of assets linking producers in the Delaware Basin to domestic and international demand."
Enterprise has also constructed 66 miles of large-diameter gathering and residue pipelines and expanded compression capabilities that link Mentone to the partnership's NGL and Texas intrastate natural gas pipeline networks. To accommodate the increase in NGLs, Enterprise is in the process of constructing 300,000 bpd of fractionation capacity at its Mont Belvieu, Texas, complex.
The iBDH plant, which is supported by long-term, fee-based contracts with investment-grade customers, will ultimately have the capability to process approximately 25,000 bpd of butane into nearly 1 billion pounds per year of isobutylene. The facility will provide the necessary feedstock to enable Enterprise to fully utilize its methyl tert-butyl ether and high-purity isobutylene assets and meet growing market demand for isobutylene. Supplies of isobutylene, which is also a byproduct of ethylene production plants, have decreased as a result of increased use of low-cost, lightend feedstocks, specifically ethane, instead of more expensive crude oil derivatives. The development of this project leverages Enterprise's extensive integrated midstream network to turn plentiful, cost-advantaged NGLs into a higher-valued product.
"The completion of the new iBDH facility extends our butane value chain by allowing us to increase production of both high-purity and low-purity isobutylene to be used primarily as feedstock to manufacture lubricants, rubber products and fuel additives," said A.J. "Jim" Teague, CEO of Enterprise's general partner. "I would like to commend the performance of our construction contractor and our employees, whose expertise, diligence and more than 25 years of experience with the Oleflex technology allowed the project to be completed on time and under budget. This same technology and project execution strategy is being utilized on our second propane dehydrogenation plant, which is currently under construction at the same complex and is on schedule for completion in the first half of 2023."
Enterprise Products Partners is one of the largest publicly traded partnerships and a leading North American provider of midstream energy services to producers and consumers of natural gas, NGLs, crude oil, refined products and petrochemicals. Its services include natural gas gathering, treating, processing, transportation and storage; NGL transportation, fractionation, storage, and export and import terminals; crude oil gathering, transportation, storage, and export and import terminals; petrochemical and refined products transportation, storage, export and import terminals, and related services; and a marine transportation business that operates primarily on the U.S. inland and Intracoastal Waterway systems. The partnership's assets include approximately 50,000 miles of pipelines; 260 million barrels of storage capacity for NGLs, crude oil, refined products and petrochemicals; and 14 Bcf of natural gas storage capacity.
For more information, visit www.enterpriseproducts.com or call (888) 547-0877.
