US Enterprise Products to acquire Oiltanking Partners for $6bn

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Enterprise Products plans to acquire Oiltanking Partners in a two-step deal for about $6bn, the US-based midstream energy firm said on Wednesday.

Oiltanking Partners owns marine terminals on the Houston Ship Channel and in Beaumont, Texas, with about 24m barrels of crude oil and petroleum products storage capacity on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Enterprise Products is Oiltanking’s largest customer. Oiltanking’s marine terminal on the Houston Ship Channel is connected with Enterprise’s Mont Belvieu facility and integrated into Enterprise’s liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) export, octane enhancement and propylene businesses.

Enterprise said it already acquired the general partner and related incentive distribution rights of Oiltanking Partners. In a second step, it submitted a proposal to the conflicts committee of the general partner of Oiltanking Partners to merge Oiltanking Partners into Enterprise, it said.

“We are pleased to announce this two-step transaction that would result in the merger of Oiltanking Partners into Enterprise,” said Enterprise CEO Michael Creel.

“The combination of Enterprise’s system of midstream assets and Oiltanking Partners’ access to waterborne markets and crude oil and petroleum products storage assets would extend and broaden Enterprise’s midstream energy services business,” he said.

“This combination would benefit our producing and consuming customers by enhancing their respective access to supplies, domestic and international markets, and storage,” he added.

Oiltanking Partners is an affiliate of Germany-based oil and chemicals storage firm Oiltanking.