Marubeni inks offtake deal for Enterprise propylene supply

Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPP), through one of its affiliates, has entered a long-term agreement with Marubeni Corp. of Japan, under which Marubeni will offtake polymer-grade propylene (PGP) produced from a second propane dehydrogenation plant (PDH 2) currently under construction at EPP’s operations in Mont Belvieu, Tex., for supply to global customers (OGJ Online, Sept. 26, 2019).

Concluded on June 16, the PGP offtake agreement is part of a long-term collaboration between EPP and Marubeni that also includes the export of liquefied ethylene, the first 25-million lb vessel of which loaded and sailed from EPP and Navigator Holdings Ltd.’s 50-50 joint venture marine terminal at Morgan’s Point, Tex., in early January (OGJ Online, Jan. 8, 2020), EPP and Marubeni said on June 30.

While neither company revealed a precise volume of PGP included under the new agreement, Marubeni—the globe’s largest trader of olefins—said access to PGP supply included in the deal will help meet its international customers’ demand for derivative products.

Still on schedule to enter service in second-quarter 2023, PDH 2 will have the capacity to upgrade 35,000 b/d of propane into 1.65 billion lb/year of PGP.

Upon PDH2’s full commissioning, EPP said its Mont Belvieu complex—equipped with capacity to produce up to 8 billion lb/year of PGP from its seven propylene fractionators and 3 billion lb/year from PDH1 and PDH2—will have a total PDH production capacity of 11 billion lb/year to become the largest complex of its kind in the world.

Earlier this year, EPP commissioned a new isobutane dehydrogenation (iBDH) unit at the Mont Belvieu complex (OGJ Online, Jan. 13, 2020). The iBDH unit is designed to process about 25,000 b/d of butane into nearly 1 billion lb/year of both high and low-purity isobutylene for use primarily as feedstock at EPP’s olefins assets to expand production of lubricants, rubber products, alkylate for gasoline blendstock, and methyl tertiary butyl ether to help meet growing demand on export markets.