Howard Midstream Energy Partners LLC, San Antonio, will build a 200-MMcfd cryogenic natural gas processing plant in Webb County, Tex., and already has begun building an import and export railroad hub for oil field services and products, including condensate and NGLs.
Both facilities will serve operators primarily in the Olmos, Escondido, and Eagle Ford shale plays in South Texas. Total cost of the projects will reach about $100 million, said the company.
The new Reveille gas plant and associated pipelines will tie into the Cuervo Creek gathering pipeline that Howard Energy bought in March 2012 (OGJ Online, Mar. 15, 2012).
Plant construction will begin in April with start-up anticipated in January 2014. The plant will handle multiple rich natural gas formations including the Olmos, Escondido, and Eagle Ford.
Howard Energy said it has signed long-term gathering and processing contracts with Escondido Resources II, Midland, Tex., and Laredo Energy, Laredo, Tex., that support construction of the Reveille plant. These agreements add to Howard Energy’s “guaranteed minimum throughput of fee-based commitments” to its system, said the company, bringing the total to more than 350 bcf.
The railroad hub in Live Oak County will sit on about 260 acres in the Eagle Ford near US Highway 281 south of Three Rivers, Tex. It will access the Union Pacific Railroad running from San Antonio to Corpus Christi, as well as numerous pipelines in the area that will transport oil and condensate.
The Live Oak Rail hub will be a major South Texas industrial hub, said the company, capable of handling manifest and unit trains moving multiple types of cargo, including crude oil, condensate, NGLs, water, pipe, and sand used in the hydraulic fracturing.
Howard Energy began construction of the rail hub last month and said it expects it to accommodate manifest trains in May of this year.
Mike Howard, chairman and CEO of Howard Energy Partners, said the company operates about 500 miles of pipeline in the western Eagle Ford.