By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, June 23 -- Enterprise Products Partners LP is expanding its natural gas liquids transportation system in the Permian basin and Midcontinent regions.
The company has entered a definitive agreement to buy underground storage facilities and four propane terminals from Ferrellgas LP for $144 million.
The storage facilities, in Kansas, Arizona, and Utah, have total capacity of 6.1 million bbl, about 70% of which is leased to third parties under fee-based contracts.
Enterprise plans to invest $7 million to lay a private 30-mile pipeline to connect the largest of the storage facilities, in Hutchinson, Kan., with the large NGL storage complex at Conway, Kan., and the company's Mid-America Pipeline system hub. The Mid-America system serves the Rocky Mountains, Permian basin, and US Midwest.
The propane terminals in the Ferrellgas transaction are in Minnesota and North Carolina. Ferrellgas has agreed to maintain storage levels at specified levels and terminal throughput for 5 years.
Enterprise also has begun engineering and design work for construction of a 190-mile, 12-in., bidirectional, mixed-NGL pipeline with capacity to move 67,000 b/d of product between Skellytown, Tex., and Conway, and 35,000 b/d from Conway to Hobbs, NM. The company is building a 75,000 b/d NGL fractionator and related storage at Hobbs.
Separately, Enterprise exercised its option to acquire from an affiliate of Williams Cos. a 2% indirect ownership interest in Mid-America Pipeline and a 1.6% indirect ownership interest in Seminole Pipeline, which carries NGL from Hobbs and the Permian basin to Mont Belvieu, Tex. After completion of the transaction, expected by June 30, it will own 100% of Mid-America and 90% of Seminole.