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Natural gas
In the US, Enterprise Products Partners LP started up a fifth NGL fractionator at its Mont Belvieu, Tex., complex, east of Houston. Initial volumes exceed the unit's 75,000 b/d nameplate capacity, EPP said (OGJ Online, Oct. 18, 2011).
The new unit increases total nameplate capacity at EPP's Mont Belvieu site to 380,000 b/d. Under long-term contracts, the unit provides fractionation for increasing NGL production from US shale plays, including Texas' Eagle Ford and those in the Rocky Mountains and Midcontinent.
With petrochemical companies announcing more conversions, expansions, and new construction that will consume additional ethane and gas producers announcing more discoveries of shale plays with NGL-rich reserves, Enterprise has begun building a sixth fractionator at Mont Belvieu, also with 75,000-b/d nameplate capacity.
Upon its completion, total nameplate capacity of Enterprise's Mont Belvieu NGL fractionation complex will increase to more than 450,000 b/d. Enterprise anticipates the sixth fractionator starting up in early 2013, when it will be fully contracted.
Hess Corp., Houston, awarded a contract for detailed design and procurement to Mustang Engineering, a Houston-based Wood Group company, for expansion of Hess's Tioga gas plant in the Bakken oil play in northwestern North Dakota.
The project will expand plant capacity to 250 MMcfd from about 110 MMcfd and install cryogenic capacity for ethane recovery, full fractionation, and NGL sales. Engineering design services will be completed in second-quarter 2012.
Southcross Energy, Dallas, will build a 200-MMcfd gas processing plant in Refugio County, Tex., to process liquids-rich production from the Eagle Ford shale in South Texas. The new plant will expand Southcross's processing in the area to 335 MMcfd (OGJ Online, June 14, 2011).
Also to handle rich gas, Southcross is retrofitting and enhancing its Gregory processing plant in San Patricio County to handle 135 MMcfd of rich-gas feed. Southcross's Ron Bancroft said the plant had heretofore been rated at about 150 MMcfd for much leaner gas. The plant lies about 13 miles east of Corpus Christi near the town of Gregory.
Construction of the Woodsboro plant should be completed in second-quarter 2012, the company said. The plant will be about 25 miles northeast of Corpus Christi near the town of Woodsboro.
In October, Zhaikmunai LP, a UK-based independent active in Chinarevskoye field in northwestern Kazakhstan, reported that Trains 1 and 2 of its natural gas treatment plant in the region have begun operations (OGJ Online, Oct. 14, 2011).
The plant treats condensate from Zhaikmunai-operated wells as well as associated gas from the company's oil-treatment unit, producing stabilized condensate, LPG, and dry gas. Each train of the gas treatment plant can process 850 million cu m/year.
In September, Pacific Stratus Energy Corp., a subsidiary of Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp., Bogota, has now been effectively processing gas for about 3 months with two plants near Bogota built by Tucker Gas Processing Equipment Inc. The Abanico project is a 1.5 MMscfd plant. The Guaduas project is a 5 MMscfd plant.
In June, AltaGas Ltd., Calgary, received final regulatory approval to begin building its 120-MMcfd Gordondale gas processing plant about 100 km northwest of Grande Prairie, Alta. The plant will be equipped with liquids extraction (OGJ, June 6, 2011, p. 88). The plant is scheduled to come online in late 2012. Project cost is $235 million.
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