Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPP) has completed construction of the Aegis pipeline segment connecting Beaumont, Tex., with Lake Charles, La.
The 48-mile segment, along with the initial 60-mile segment currently in service (OGJ Online, Sept. 30, 2014), supplies ethane to petrochemical facilities between Mont Belvieu, Tex., and Lake Charles. The final leg of the 270-mile Aegis system, expected to be completed by yearend, will extend the pipeline from Lake Charles to the Mississippi River.
EPP’s Mont Belvieu complex is the terminus for more than 3 million b/d of natural gas liquids supply pipeline capacity, and is connected to more than 2 million b/d of industry NGL fractionation capacity and more than 110 million bbl of EPP-owned salt dome storage capacity.
Combined with EPP’s existing South Texas system, Aegis will provide shippers with access to a 500-mile ethane header system between Corpus Christi, Tex., and the Mississippi River in Louisiana. The Aegis pipeline is supported by customer commitments of more than 300,000 b/d that ramp up over the next 4 years. The pipeline’s capacity can be expanded to 400,000 b/d with additional pumps.
“Access to cost-advantaged ethane as a feedstock will be vital as the petrochemical industry along the Gulf Coast is expected to grow substantially over the next 5 years,” said AJ Teague, chief operating officer of EPP’s general partner. “Aegis will serve as a major ethane supply artery along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast, which will include approximately 20 petrochemical facilities representing more than 90% of the nation’s ethylene capacity by 2020.”
