1st Ethylene Shipped from Enterprise’s Morgan’s Point Terminal

The first cargo of ethylene has been exported from the 50/50 joint venture marine terminal, owned by Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and Navigator Holdings Ltd, located at Morgan’s Point, Texas along the Houston Ship Channel.

The Navigator Europa recently departed the facility carrying 25 million pounds of ethylene for Marubeni Corporation, a large Japanese trading company, and long-term terminal customer.

The new terminal features two docks and the capacity to load 2.2 billion pounds per year of ethylene. A refrigerated storage tank for 66 million pounds of ethylene is also being built on-site and will increase the capability to load ethylene up to a rate of 2.2 million pounds per hour.

As informed, tank construction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2020.

The export terminal is pipeline-connected to Enterprise’s Mont Belvieu, Texas complex, where the company is in the process of commissioning a high-capacity ethylene salt dome storage well with a capacity of 600 million pounds. Enterprise has designed the system to serve as an open market storage and trading hub for the ethylene industry through storage, connections to multiple ethylene pipelines and high-capacity export capabilities.

“Because of abundant natural gas liquids thanks to the shale revolution, the U.S. is now a global leader in ethylene production, with an unprecedented buildout of mostly ethane crackers along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast, providing hundreds of thousands of jobs to local economies,” said A.J. “Jim” Teague, Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise’s general partner.

“Including a second wave of new petrochemical plants now being developed, production of ethylene is poised for continued growth and is expected to exceed 100 billion pounds per year by 2025. We are very pleased to join forces with Navigator to bring this new terminal to fruition, which complements Enterprise’s integrated pipeline and storage network, including the development of open market hubs for ethylene and polymer grade propylene that help ensure price transparency, reliability and flexibility for petrochemical producers and consumers.”

Enterprise is developing its ethylene pipeline and logistics system further into South Texas.  A 24-mile pipeline between Mont Belvieu and Bayport, Texas routed through Morgan’s Point is expected to begin service in the fourth quarter of 2020. Enterprise recently also announced plans to build the 90-mile Baymark Pipeline from Bayport to Markham, Texas, that is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2020.