Energy Transfer, Targa announce Mont Belvieu and pipeline expansions
November 8, 2018
Houston's Targa Resources and Dallas' Energy Transfer said Thursday they're both building new facilities east of Houston in Mont Belvieu to process all of the natural gas liquids pumped out of onshore shale wells, especially from West Texas' booming Permian Basin.
Energy Transfer also said it is expanding its Lone Star Express NGL pipeline system by adding a new 352-mile pipeline from the Permian to the Fort Worth area. The existing pipeline network extends to Mont Belvieu. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2020.
In Mont Belvieu, Targa and Energy Transfer are building new fractionator facilities. Fractionators take the streams of natural gas liquids from oil and gas wells and separate the NGLs into their individual parts, such as ethane, butane and propane.
The ethane, especially, is the primary feedstock for the expanding petrochemical sector in the Houston area. The processed ethane is the primary building block for the most common plastics.
Targa said it is building two new fractionators that will each process 110,000 barrels of NGLs per day that will be up and running by mid-2020.
Energy Transfer said it is building its seventh fractionator in the area to process 150,000 barrels of NGLs a day. Energy Transfer's sixth facility there is currently under construction.