ATEX Express pipeline project (upgrade) in 2013

From an Article by Sergio Chapa, Houston Chronicle, October 14, 2019

Houston pipeline operator Enterprise Products Partners is moving forward with plans to expand a pipeline to move ethane from the natural gas fields of Appalachia to the company’s processing plants and storage terminals in southeast Texas.

In a statement released on Monday morning, Enterprise confirmed that it will proceed with the expansion of its Appalachia-to-Texas pipeline. Known as ATEX, the 1,200-mile pipeline moves ethane from the Marcellus Shale and Utica Basin of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to Enterprise’s natural gas liquids storage complex just east of Houston in Mont Belvieu.

Estimated construction costs have not been disclosed but the decision comes after the completion of a 30-day open season for producers to book capacity on the expansion project.

“The success of the open season reflects the demand for additional, reliable ethane takeaway capacity from the Appalachian region of the country,” Enterprise Senior Vice President Michael C. “Tug” Hanley said in a statement. “Our customers value flow assurance and reliability.

The expansion of ATEX will facilitate growing production from the Marcellus/Utica Basin and will provide access to attractive markets on the Gulf Coast through Enterprise’s integrated midstream network.”

ATEX can currently move 145,000 barrels of ethane per day but the expansion project will boost that to 190,000 barrels per day. The extra capacity is expected to be achieved through improvements and modifications to existing infrastructure. If successful, the extra capacity will be available by 2022.

Ethane is experiencing high global demand by petrochemical plants to make plastics. Enterprise already handles an estimated 80 percent of U.S. ethane exports. The company is building an export terminal at Morgan’s Point to begin exports of ethylene, a chemical made from ethane that is also used to make plastics and other products.

Founded in 1968 and headquartered in Houston, Enterprise has more than 7,000 employees across the United States.

Touted as the largest exporter of crude oil and natural gas liquids in the United States, the company reported making a $4.2 billion profit on $36.5 billion of revenue in 2018.

NGL pipelines cross the Appalachian mountains in Penna.

From an Article by Harry Weber, S&P Global Platts, August 26, 2019

Houston, TX — Enterprise Products Partners has begun soliciting shipper interest in a proposed 50,000 b/d expansion of its ATEX ethane pipeline that would move more supplies from the Appalachian Basin to its NGLs storage complex in Mont Belvieu, Texas.

The operator has been looking to boost deliveries of oil, gas, and natural gas liquids (NGLs) from key shale basins in the US Northeast and West Texas to downstream markets including the Gulf Coast to serve domestic and overseas demand.

Along the Houston Ship Channel and Gulf Coast, Enterprise’s connectivity has been a growth driver. For drillers, stripping ethane and propane from the natural gas produced at the wellhead creates two more revenue streams in addition to the dry gas that remains. Midstream operators benefit by increasing volumes on their pipelines, and in Enterprise’s case it has significant export capabilities from the Gulf, with Asian demand providing a key market.

The 1,200-mile ATEX, or Appalachia-to-Texas, pipeline transports ethane from the Marcellus and Utica shale plays in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio to Enterprise’s Mont Belvieu complex. The system has access to petrochemical facilities along the Gulf Coast.

The extra capacity that Enterprise is considering, which would be achieved by a combination of pipeline looping, hydraulic improvements, and modifications to existing infrastructure, is subject to sufficient customer commitments through the binding open season. The solicitation launched Monday runs through September 25. The expanded capabilities would be in service by 2022, Enterprise said in a statement.

Enterprise’s Mont Belvieu hub also gets NGLs fed to it from the south and west, via the South Texas NGL pipeline system, Seminole NGL Pipeline, and Texas Express Pipeline. In February, the mainline of Enterprise’s Shin Oak NGL pipeline entered service.

In Enterprise’s latest quarter, NGL pipeline transportation volumes edged up to 3.6 million b/d from 3.4 million b/d for second-quarter 2018. When it released its results in July, Enterprise said it was eyeing further expansions tied to its hub along the ship channel, as well as upgrades to existing natural gas processing facilities.

The efforts tie into its NGL expansion plans, as Enterprise wants to increase market share along the entire value chain from wellhead to processing plant to storage and export facility. In the Permian, for instance, Enterprise has projected that by 2020 it will have more than 1.6 Bcf/d of natural gas processing capacity and over 250,000 b/d of NGL production capabilities, as well as 1.5 million b/d of systemwide fractionation capacity.

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See also: Gov. Wolf tells pipeline activists he won’t shut down Mariner East pipeline | StateImpact Pennsylvania, August 26, 2019

https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2019/08/22/wolf-tells-pipeline-activists-he-wont-shut-down-mariner-east/