Lone Star to Construct 3rd Fractionator at Mont Belvieu

Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP) and Regency Energy Partners LP said Nov. 5 that their joint venture, Lone Star NGL LLC, is constructing a third 100,000-bbld fractionation facility at Mont Belvieu. The fractionator is fully subscribed by multiple long-term contracts and is necessary to handle increasing NGL barrels delivered via Energy Transfer’s and Lone Star’s raw-make pipeline systems that gather NGLs from the Permian, Eagle Ford, and North Texas production areas. Fractionator III, estimated to cost between $420 million and $430 million, is scheduled to be operational by December 2015. In addition, Lone Star continues to evaluate additional fractionation expansion opportunities at Mont Belvieu and in areas outside of that location.

In other news, Energy Transfer Partners has entered into additional long-term gas gathering and processing agreements with producers in the Eagle Ford and Eaglebine production areas of south and southeast Texas. To facilitate the agreements, ETP has begun construction on two cryogenic gas processing plants and additional gas gathering pipelines.

The East Texas Plant, a 200-MMcfd facility, will be constructed east of the company’s La Grange Plant. The new plant is expected to be in service by the fourth quarter of 2015. The Volunteer Pipeline will deliver rich gas to the East Texas Plant for processing, with the NGLs and residue gas delivered to Lone Star NGL LLC’s pipeline and Energy Transfer’s Southeast Bossier 42-in. gas pipeline, respectively. The 70-mile, 24-in. Volunteer Pipeline will have an initial capacity of 200 MMcfd that will be expandable to more than 400 MMcfd with the addition of compression. The pipeline will originate in eastern Brazos County, Texas at an interconnect with ETP’s Southeast Texas Pipeline System. Construction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Also, Energy Transfer has started construction of a 200-MMcfd cryogenic gas processing plant in the Eagle Ford production area that is expected to be online by June 2015. The plant will be fully subscribed and will deliver residue gas into Energy Transfer’s HPL intrastate pipeline system and NGLs into Lone Star’s pipeline system. By the end of 2015, Energy Transfer expects to have about 1.8 Bcfd of cryogenic processing capacity in service in the Eagle Ford and Eaglebine plays with expected NGL barrels recovered reaching 250,000 bbld.