Enterprise Products Partners has begun operations of the new fifth natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionator at its Mont Belvieu, Texas, US, complex.
The plant is operating in excess of its nameplate capacity of 75,000 barrels a day (bpd) and the new unit will increase the total nameplate capacity at the facility to 380,000 bpd.
Enterprise's general partner executive vice president and chief operating officer A.J. Jim Teague said with increasing demand from petrochemical companies for NGL-rich natural gas reserves, they have started construction of a sixth NGL fractionator with a nameplate capacity of 75,000 bpd at the Mont Belvieu complex.
Upon completion of the sixth fractionator, total nameplate capacity of Enterprise's Mont Belvieu NGL fractionation facility will increase to more than 450,000 bpd.
Commercial operations at the sixth fractionator are projected to begin in early 2013.
The additional capacity provided by the fifth and sixth fractionators will allow Enterprise to process mixed NGLs at its Mont Belvieu complex that are currently being diverted to Louisiana, as well as incremental volumes from the partnership's new Yoakum natural gas processing facility in Lavaca County, Texas, which is scheduled to begin operations in mid-2012.
