Boston, MA 05/06/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD) recently disclosed plans to establish an export complex that will among other things support conversion of ethane to liquid for tanker transportation. However, the company is yet to reveal the financial details that it expects to involve in the building of the export complex. Nonetheless, it expects the development to support revenue growth given the glut of oil and gas production in North America and the growing demand for the cheap commodities overseas.
The U.S. biggest pipeline operator said the facility to be constructed along the Texas Gulf Coast will have a daily capacity of 240,000 barrels of the liquefied ethane for the international market. Ethane is used in chemical plants as feedstock and its production in the U.S. is headed to exceed domestic demand by about 700,000 in the next six years. Therefore, Enterprise expects its new export complex to not only support revenue growth but also relieve the U.S. production glut.
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD) expects the new facility that is likely to be the largest of its kind the-world-over, to integrate into its fractionation complex at Mont Belvieu that separates natural gas into ethane and some other components. The Mont Belvieu facility has a daily capacity of 650,000 barrels.
Executive comment
According to the CEO Michael Creel, the ethane export complex is already attracting growing interest internationally, and the company expects to soon contact the entire capacity of the facility to overseas buyers. Though the CEO fell short of providing the financial spending intended for the building of the facility, he said ethane export activities might start by the 3Q2016.
Latest quarter performance
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD) reported 1Q2014 net income of $798.8 million or $0.85 per share. That compared with $753.5 million or $0.83 per share in the corresponding quarter a year earlier. Revenue in the quarter jumped about 13 percent to hit $12.9 billion. The strong 1Q was supported by a new project that came online in the quarter following a $2.5 billion investment. As such, the company improved its daily pipeline capacity by 14 percent in the quarter.
