Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPP) received sufficient transportation commitments to support development of its 1,230-mile Appalachia-to-Texas pipeline (ATEX Express), delivering ethane production from the Marcellus-Utica shale areas of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio to the US Gulf Coast. ATEX Express will transport as much as 190,000 b/d from Appalachian production areas to EPP’s storage and distribution assets in Texas.
Originating in Washington County, Pa., the system’s first leg would involve construction of about 595 miles of new pipeline extending to Cape Girardeau, Mo., closely paralleling an existing Enterprise pipeline. At Cape Girardeau, EPP will reverse a 16-in. OD pipeline and place it into ethane service.
At the southern terminus of the ATEX Express pipeline, EPP will build a 55-mile, 16-in. OD pipeline providing access to its NGL storage complex at Mont Belvieu, Tex.
EPP is conducting surveys and negotiating right-of-way agreements, and expects. ATEX Express to begin commercial operations first-quarter 2014.
US Gulf Coast petrochemical demand for price-advantaged ethane feedstock over crude oil-based derivatives is about 955,000 b/d and continues to increase, EPP said.
Chesapeake Energy Corp. last year signed a long-term contract as anchor shipper on ATEX Express (OGJ Online, Nov. 4, 2011).
Contact Christopher E. Smith at [email protected].