US Enterprise starts up ethane export terminal

The new terminal will have a loading rate of 200,000 bbl/day across two docks at Morgan’s Point along the Houston Ship Channel and connect with the company’s Mont Belvieu operations. (Port of Houston Authority)

HOUSTON (ICIS)–US Enterprise Products Partners has begun start-up operations at its ethane export facility at Morgan’s Point on the Houston Ship Channel, the company said in a government filing on Tuesday.

The initial start-up of the facility required flaring that had to be reported to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

Enterprise said in the filing that the estimated duration of start-up and commissioning of the site will last until 15 July.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The terminal will have a loading rate of 200,000 bbl/day across two docks. The capacity is supported by long-term contracts, the company said.

The facility is integrated with Enterprise’s Mont Belvieu operations, also in Texas, which includes natural gas liquid (NGL) fractionation and storage.

The export terminal has been in the works for over two years. When it was first announced, ethane prices were fetching about 30 cents/gal. Prices were assessed on Tuesday at 19.25 cents/gal, a decline of 35.8%.

Ethane prices have fallen recently from yearly highs that were initiated by the start up of Sunoco Logistics’ east coast terminal at Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, back in April.

Ethane prices began to increase weeks before the start-up of that facility, as ethane supplies were diverted from the US Gulf to fill the ethane ships on the east coast.

Once the market absorbed that initial supply disruption, prices began to decline, as a heavy cracker turnaround season and chronically high rejection levels began to weigh on the market.

Prices have not reacted in the same fashion to the start-up of Enterprise’s export facility, suggesting that storage tanks are full and demand is stable-to-soft.

A broker said buying has definitely slowed down over the last several weeks, after the frenzy caused by the first export facility.