New Eagle Ford fractionator planned

Dec. 20, 2013
Plains All American Pipeline LP, Houston, will build new NGL fractionation and expand existing condensate stabilization in the Eagle Ford play of South Texas, the company has announced.  

Plains All American Pipeline LP, Houston, will build new NGL fractionation and expand existing condensate stabilization in the Eagle Ford play of South Texas, the company has announced.

The 15,000-b/d fractionator, expanded condensate stabilization, and enhanced related infrastructure will cost about $120 million and come into service in second-quarter 2015.

The fractionator will be near existing Plains assets in Gardendale, La Salle County, Tex., and include condensate stabilization and rail and truck loading and unloading. It will handle NGL Y-grade and treat and fractionate off-spec Y-grade from Plains’s South Texas gathering system and throughout the Eagle Ford region.

Purity products to be produced include international refrigerant specification-grade LE propane, US Environmental Protection Agency non-commercial-grade butane, and international specification natural gasoline. These products can be transported from Plains’s adjacent rail and truck loading facilities with access to premium markets for each product.

Plains’s existing Gardendale truck and rail infrastructure are being enhanced to facilitate loading, unloading, and transporting Y-grade and purity products, and Plains will build about 80,000 bbl of pressurized storage to accommodate Y-grade and purity products.

Plains is also adding a third condensate stabilization train that will provide about 40,000 b/d of incremental capacity to the existing condensate stabilization facility, bringing total capacity to about 120,000 b/d.