Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPP) and Navigator Holdings Ltd. have exported the first cargo of ethylene from their 50-50 joint venture marine terminal at Morgan’s Point, Tex., along the Houston Ship Channel. The Navigator Europa departed the terminal carrying 25 million lb of ethylene for Marubeni Corp.
The new terminal features two docks and the capacity to load 2.2 billion lb/year of ethylene. A 66-million lb refrigerated storage tank is also being built onsite and will increase loading rates to 2.2 million lb/hr. Tank construction is expected to be completed fourth-quarter 2020.
The export terminal is pipeline-connected to Enterprise’s Mont Belvieu, Tex., complex, where the company is in the process of commissioning a 600-million lb high-capacity ethylene salt dome storage well. Enterprise has designed the system to serve as an open market storage and trading hub for the ethylene industry through storage, connections to multiple ethylene pipelines, and high-capacity export capabilities.
EPP expects total Gulf Coast ethylene production to exceed 100 billion lb/year by 2025.
In addition to the new ethylene export terminal and storage infrastructure, EPP is developing a 24-mile pipeline between Mont Belvieu and Bayport, Tex., routed through Morgan’s Point and expected to begin service fourth-quarter 2020. EPP is also building the 90-mile Baymark Pipeline from Bayport to Markham, Tex., for fourth-quarter 2020 completion. Both pipelines are supported by long-term customer commitments and will enable producers and consumers to access the Enterprise open market ethylene storage and trading hub.