Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (KMEP) reported signing an agreement with a large Eagle Ford shale producer to extend the Kinder Morgan Crude and Condensate (KMCC) pipeline farther into the Eagle Ford shale in South Texas.
KMEP will invest $74 million to build an 18-mile, 24-in. lateral pipeline northwest from its DeWitt station in DeWitt County, Tex., to a new facility in Gonzales County, Tex., where KMEP will build 300,000 bbl of storage, a pipeline pump station, and truck offloading facilities.
The lateral will have a capacity of 300,000 b/d and will enable KMEP to batch Eagle Ford crude and condensate from the new Gonzales Station via KMCC to its delivery points on the Houston Ship Channel and the soon-to-be-completed Sweeny lateral pipeline serving the Phillips 66 Sweeny refinery in Brazoria County, Tex.
In May, KMEP reported it was expanding Sweeny, increasing the capacity of the 27-mile, 12-in. OD line to 100,000 b/d from an initially planned 30,000 b/d (OGJ Online, May 3, 2013). A month later, KMEP said it would expand the KMCC pipeline 31 miles from the KMCC DeWitt station to ConocoPhillips’s central delivery facility near Helena in Karnes County (OGJ Online, June 4, 2013).
KMEP said the arrangement brings optionality to Eagle Ford producers and Houston market consumers. The project is expected to be immediately accretive to cash available to KMEP unit-holders on completion in early 2015.
With joint ventures and other projects, KMEP’s planned investments for Eagle Ford shale crude and condensates total $900 million.