MarkWest to buy Starfish Pipeline

Jan. 31, 2005
MarkWest Energy Partners LP, Englewood, Colo., has signed an agreement with an affiliate of Enterprise Products Partners LP (Enterprise Products), Houston, to acquire the 50% nonoperating membership interest Enterprise Products holds in Starfish Pipeline Co. LLC for $42.1 million.

By OGJ editors

HOUSTON, Jan. 31 -- MarkWest Energy Partners LP, Englewood, Colo., has signed an agreement with an affiliate of Enterprise Products Partners LP (Enterprise Products), Houston, to acquire the 50% nonoperating membership interest Enterprise Products holds in Starfish Pipeline Co. LLC for $42.1 million.

The transaction, expected to close in the first quarter of 2005, requires US Federal Trade Commission approval because of a consent agreement between Enterprise Products and GulfTerra Energy Partners LP, with which Enterprise merged in September 2004.

The acquisition will be financed through existing credit lines and is expected to generate $7.1 million/year in cash flow from operations this year.

Starfish owns the US-regulated Stingray natural gas pipeline, the unregulated Triton gas gathering system, and the West Cameron dehydration facility, all in the Gulf of Mexico or in southwestern Louisiana.