HOUSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sep. 1, 2016– Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD) today announced that the first cargo of ethane to be exported from Enterprise’s Morgan’s Point, Texas terminal has been loaded. The M/V JS INEOS Intrepid, loaded with approximately 265,000 barrels of ethane, set sail from the facility this morning en route to the INEOS facility at Rafnes in Norway. The Morgan’s Point ethane export facility, which is the largest of its kind in the world, has a design loading capacity of 10,000 barrels per hour.
The driving force behind development of the terminal is the growing international demand for abundant U.S. ethane from shale plays, which offers the global petrochemical industry a low-cost feedstock option and supply diversification. By providing producers with access to the export market, the Morgan’s Point terminal is also facilitating continued development of U.S. energy reserves.
Supply for the new ethane export terminal is sourced from Enterprise’s natural gas liquids fractionation and storage complex in Mont Belvieu, Texas and transported through a new 18-mile, 24-inch diameter pipeline that was completed in February of 2016. In addition, the Mont Belvieu complex is connected to ethane production from the Marcellus and Utica Shale regions through the ATEX pipeline.