Enterprise, Chesapeake outline Eagle Ford gas transport, processing plans

Dec. 20, 2010
Enterprise Products Partners LP has entered into 10-year agreements to handle a substantial portion of Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s liquids-rich natural gas production in the Eagle Ford shale.

Christopher E. Smith
OGJ Pipeline Editor

HOUSTON, Dec. 20 -- Enterprise Products Partners LP has entered into 10-year agreements to handle a substantial portion of Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s liquids-rich natural gas production in the Eagle Ford shale.

Chesapeake’s gross acreage position currently includes more than 625,000 acres in and around the oil and NGL-rich areas of the Eagle Ford shale in the South Texas counties of Dimmit, LaSalle, McMullen, Webb, and Zavala.

The agreements provide Chesapeake with firm commitments for gas transportation, processing, and NGL transportation and fractionation services.

Chesapeake’s natural gas initially will be gathered, compressed, and moved by Chesapeake Midstream Development LLC for eventual transportation and processing by Enterprise at its existing facilities while a previously announced natural gas processing plant in Texas is completed.

Enterprise expects the new cryogenic processing facility to be completed early in 2012, at an initial processing capacity of 600 MMcfd and an initial NGL extraction capacity of 75,000 b/d. The NGL production from Chesapeake’s gas ultimately will be transported from this processing plant to Enterprise’s previously announced 127-mile NGL pipeline, extending to its NGL fractionation complex in Mont Belvieu, Tex.

Earlier this month, Enterprise began operations at its fourth NGL fractionator at Mont Belvieu at 75,000 b/d, increasing nameplate capacity at the facility to 305,000 b/d (OGJ Online, Dec. 1, 2010).

The new NGL pipeline, scheduled for completion in early 2012, will have an initial capacity of more than 85,000 b/d and would be readily expandable to over 120,000 b/d, according to Enterprise.

Activity in the Eagle Ford Shale continues to increase as approximately 115 rigs working in the play have drilled more than 330 wells completed to date, Enterprise says. Enterprise estimated total current production from the play at about 425 MMcfd natural gas and 35,000 b/d crude oil and condensate.

Contact Chris Smith at [email protected]