Enterprise Loads First Ethane Cargo From Neches River Terminal

A slew of LPG, ethane and ethylene export projects are underway along the Gulf Coast, a direct result of rising U.S. NGL production and generally flat domestic demand. Three of the projects will provide “flex” capacity of some sort — that is, the facilities will be able to shift between LPG and ethane exports or, in some cases, between ethane and ethylene. In today’s RBN blog, we review the history of U.S. LPG and ethane exports, why midstreamers have been struggling to keep up with export capacity, and how the ongoing addition of flex capacity is likely to play out.

LPG and ethane exports out of the U.S. continue to grow rapidly and are expected to reach 3.4 MMb/d by 2030. They are also critical parts of a plan by Enterprise Products Partners to expand its total liquid hydrocarbon exports to 100 MMbbl per month (100 MMb/month), a roughly 50% increase from current levels for crude oil, LPG and ethane, refined products and petchems. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll take a closer look at Enterprise’s LPG and ethane exports and how much they need to grow to reach the company’s ambitious goal. 

Way back in 2018-19, U.S. NGL production was rising fast, new ethane-only steam crackers were coming online along the Gulf Coast, and new fractionation capacity wasn’t being added quickly enough — the capacity shortfall sent the NGL market into near-panic. Fast forward to now: NGL production is still rising but domestic demand is flat, resulting in an NGL-exports surge and a race to develop new export capacity. And fractionation capacity in Mont Belvieu and elsewhere? The market learned its lesson five years ago and, to avert another capacity crunch, midstream companies have been adding new fractionators at an almost frenetic pace. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the ongoing fractionation-capacity buildout — and the need to quickly expand NGL export terminals.