Nick Snow
Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON, DC, Dec. 1 -- Dan L. Duncan and three corporate entities are seeking approval from the US Federal Trade Commission to sell their interests in Mont Belvieu Storage Partners to partner Louis Dreyfus Energy Services LP.
The sale would satisfy FTC's Nov. 3 final order requiring Duncan, EPCO Inc., Texas Eastern Products Pipeline Co. LLC, and TEPPCO Partners LP to divest their interests in land, pipelines, and other assets at the NGL storage site east of Houston by Dec. 31.
Agreements under which the partnership was formed require TE Products to offer the interests to Louis Dreyfus on the same terms proposed by any third party, the FTC said on Nov. 27. Louis Dreyfus then has 30 days to exercise the right of first refusal.
In the application, Duncan and the three firms he directly or indirectly controls ask to divest their interests in the Mont Belvieu storage partnership to Louis Dreyfus to satisfy the FTC order. FTC will accept public comments on the application through Dec. 27.
FTC's order came from its Aug. 18 challenge of a 2005 acquisition that combined Enterprise Product Partners and TEPPCO Partners' NGL storage businesses at Mont Belvieu. It said the transaction likely would result in higher prices and degraded service by reducing the number of salt dome storage providers there to three from four.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].
