Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (Houston; www.enterpriseproducts.com) announced that the partnership plans to expand its butane isomerization facility at its complex in Mont Belvieu, Texas. This expansion is supported by long-term agreements to provide butane isomerization, storage and pipeline services, including a 20-year, 35,000 barrel per day (bbl/d) fee-based, tolling agreement. Enterprise is currently evaluating two options to expand its butane isomerization facilities that would add up to 30,000 bbl/d of incremental capacity.
Enterprise is the largest commercial producer of high-purity isobutane in the United States. The partnership has 116,000 barrels per day of butane isomerization capacity at Mont Belvieu. Its isobutane system also includes approximately 13 million barrels of aggregate isom grade normal butane and high-purity isobutane salt dome storage capacity and 162 miles of distribution pipelines. Butane isomerization is the process of converting normal butane into high-purity isobutane, which is used as a feedstock for the petrochemical and refining industries.
“Enterprise has been providing fee-based isomerization services since 1981,” said A.J. “Jim” Teague, chief executive officer of Enterprise’s general partner. “We are pleased to announce these new long-term agreements to support another expansion of our facility. We have seen solid demand growth for high-purity isobutane by the petrochemical and refining industries. This expansion project is another example of organic growth generated by our integrated value chain serving both producers and consumers of NGLs, natural gas and crude oil.”