EPP Q1 earnings up 7.7%, cancels or defers 13 projects

Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPP) had first-quarter 2020 net income of $1.4 billion, compared with $1.3 billion for first-quarter 2019. Net cash flow provided by operating activities, or cash flow from operations, was $2 billion for first-quarter 2020 compared with $1.2 billion for first-quarter 2019. Enterprise reduced its guidance for total 2020 growth capital investments by about $1 billion to a range of $2.5-3.0 billion compared with original guidance and for sustaining capital expenditures by $100 million.

EPP cancelled or deferred spending on 13 projects, including delays to its Midland-to-Enterprise Crude Houston (ECHO) 4 pipeline (M2E4). The pipeline will have an initial capacity of 450,000 b/d expandable to as much as 540,000 b/d (OGJ Online, Oct 4, 2019). M2E4 had been expected to enter service first-half 2021 and is now expected to do so second-half 2021.

The company cancelled a planned 30,000-b/d expansion to its 116,000-b/d butane isomerization plant at its NGL fractionation and storage complex in Mont Belvieu, Tex.

Other delayed projects include:

• Enterprise Hydrocarbon Terminal (EHT) LPG and polymer-grade propylene (PGP) export expansion. This expansion would increase incremental LPG loading capacity by 260,000 b/d, to 1.1 million b/d, and was expected to be in-service third-quarter 2020. The partnership is also adding refrigeration at its Houston Ship Channel (HSC) terminal that will enable it to load up to an incremental 67,200 b/d, or about 2 million bbl/month, of fully refrigerated PGP. The expansions would give customers the ability to co-load fully refrigerated PGP and LPG onto the same vessel. They were expected to be completed fourth-quarter 2020 and are now on indefinite hold.
• Gillis natural gas lateral and Acadian Haynesville expansion. This project includes construction of an 80-mile pipeline originating near Cheneyville, La., on EPP’s Acadian Haynesville extension to third-party interconnects near Gillis, La., including multiple pipelines serving LNG liquefaction plants in South Louisiana and southeast Texas. The 1-bcfd Gillis lateral, expected to come online mid-2021, will now enter service fourth-quarter 2021.
• EHT Dock 1A crude layberth and expansion. This eighth dock at EPP’s Houston Ship Channel terminal will load 840,000 b/d of crude oil, increasing the partnership’s nameplate export capacity for crude oil at HSC to 2.75 million b/d. Expected to begin service in fourth-quarter 2020, the expansion will now enter service fourth-quarter 2021, able to accommodate a Suezmax vessel, the largest ship class that can navigate HSC.