Phillips 66 Ramps Up LPG Exports Out of Freeport, Texas

Houston, TX (February 23, 2017) — Phillips 66 (Houston) has ramped up its LPG exports out of Texas, and bigger plans for its LPG production and operations could be on the horizon, reports Tank-Terminals. Phillips 66’s Freeport, Texas export terminal has been exporting and will continue to export near maximum capacity at about eight cargos a month, senior executives said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call.

Of that monthly export total of eight cargos, six term cargos are contracted to third parties and two spot cargos are available to Phillips 66 to use as part of the company’s commercial LPG trading operations, said Tim Taylor, president of Phillips 66. This 6:2 ratio may shift as the export cargos are not ratable, but Phillips 66 remains optimistic on the Gulf Coast LPG term export operations.

Phillips 66 is also eyeing plans to build new fractionators at Sweeny, Texas, executives said, but the company will not decide on a possible second ethane cracker project until 2019-2020. Phillips 66 commissioned its 150,000-bbld LPG export terminal in Freeport in the fourth quarter of 2016, and it shipped out its first commercial cargo in mid-December. Phillips 66 expected the Freeport facility to be loading to near maximum capacity in February.

Greg Garland, Phillips 66’s CEO, noting that the terminal exported eight cargos in January, said export volumes are expected to be the same in February and March. “We’re interested in, and actually have, contracts in Europe, Mexico, Latin America, and Asia. And so there’s volumes owing to all.” He added that Europe and Asia buy LPG from the U.S. for mostly petrochemical use, and Mexico and Latin America need LPG mostly for heating purposes.

“We’re seeing good pull out of Asia, good demand out of Europe, as well as some demand out of Latin America. Also the heating season in the northern hemisphere has been a pull, and petrochemical demand has been good as well. So I think there is good news on the volume side,” Garland said.

(SOURCE: BPN’s Weekly Propane Newsletter)