Targa lets contract for Channelview condensate splitter

May 16, 2016
Targa Terminals LLC, a subsidiary of Targa Resources Corp., Houston, has let a contract to KP Engineering LP (KPE), Tyler, Tex., to provide services related to construction of a previously proposed 35,000-b/d crude oil and condensate splitter at its Channelview, Tex., terminal on the Houston Ship Channel (HSC).

Targa Terminals LLC, a subsidiary of Targa Resources Corp., Houston, has let a contract to KP Engineering LP (KPE), Tyler, Tex., to provide services related to construction of a previously proposed 35,000-b/d crude oil and condensate splitter at its Channelview, Tex., terminal on the Houston Ship Channel (HSC) (OGJ, June 1, 2015, p. 70).

As part of the fixed-price contract, KPE will design and build the condensate splitter as well as an associated tank farm at Targa’s Channelview storage and marine terminal facility, the service provider said.

KPE, which delivered more than 2 years of process and project development on the Channelview splitter, valued the current contract in excess of $100 million.

The contract follow a long-term, fee-based arrangement Targa entered with Noble Group Ltd. subsidiary Noble Americas Corp. on Dec. 27, 2015, under which Targa Terminals agreed to build and operate the splitter, according to the companies’ annual reports for 2015.

First announced in March 2014 at a planned capital investment of $115 million, the Channelview splitter now is due to be completed in early 2018 at an estimated total cost of about $140 million, Targa said on May 10 in its first-quarter earnings report.

Project updates

Alongside the Channelview splitter, Targa Resources also is progressing on other projects aimed at expanding its gathering and processing capabilities for US oil and natural gas production.

Construction on a 100,000-b/d Train 5 expansion (OGJ Online, Oct. 20, 2011) of the Targa 88%-BP PLC 12% Cedar Bayou fractionator at Mont Belvieu, Tex., remains under way and is scheduled to be completed during this year’s second quarter, Targa said.

Once in operation, the Train 5 fractionator will be fully integrated with the Targa-BP partnership’s existing Gulf Coast NGL storage, terminal, and delivery infrastructure, including an extensive network of connections to major domestic petrochemical customers as well as Targa’s LPG export terminal at Galena Park, Tex., on the HSC, for distribution to international markets.

The company also informed investors that it has commissioned its 200-MMcfd Buffalo cryogenic processing plant in the Permian basin as part of an expansion of its West Texas gas gathering and processing system.

In addition to the Buffalo plant, which entered commercial operations in April, the project included laying of a high-pressure gathering line into Martin and Andrews Counties, Tex., as well as incremental compression.

The Targa-Sanchez Energy Corp. 50-50 joint venture projects to build the 200-MMcfd Raptor cryogenic gas processing plant in La Salle County, Tex., and 45 miles of high-pressure gathering pipelines to connect Sanchez Energy’s Catarina gathering system to the plant also remain on track (OGJ Online, Oct. 5, 2015), Targa said.

Designed to accommodate Sanchez’s growing production from its Eagle Ford shale acreage in Dimmit, La Salle, and Webb counties, Tex., as well as other third-party producers, the Raptor plant is due to be commissioned in early 2017.

Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].