Enterprise Products Partners has obtained sufficient transportation commitments to build its 1,230-mile Appalachia to Texas pipeline (ATEX Express) from the Marcellus / Utica Shale areas of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to the US Gulf Coast in Texas, US.
Expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2014, the ATEX Express will have the capacity to transport up to 190,000 barrels per day (bpd) of ethane from the Appalachian shale fields to the partnership's storage and distribution assets in Texas.
The demand for price-advantaged ethane feedstock over crude oil-based derivatives within the Gulf Coast petrochemical market is approximately 955,000bpd and continues to increase, according to the company.
The committed shipper transportation rate will range between 14.5cts/gal and 15.5 cts/gal.
Enterprise general partner president and CEO Michael Creel said that the willingness of shippers to commit to a period of at least 15 years reflects the long-term potential of shale development in the Appalachian region, and provides the company with the assurance necessary to build the midstream infrastructure that will facilitate further development of this domestic resource.
The system will involve construction of approximately 595 miles of new pipeline extending to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, closely paralleling an existing Enterprise pipeline.
At Cape Girardeau, Enterprise will reverse a 16in diameter pipeline and place it into ethane service.
Enterprise will be constructing a 55-mile, 16in diameter pipeline at the southern terminus of the ATEX Express pipeline.
The new southern terminus pipeline will provide shippers with access to the partnership's natural gas liquids storage complex at Mont Belvieu, Texas, giving them direct or indirect access to every ethylene plant in the US.
