April 27, 2011 [Opis] - Kinder Morgan Energy Partners said on Tuesday that it has completed construction of its Deer Park Rail Terminal (DPRT) and related ethanol handling assets at its Pasadena Terminal located along the Houston Ship Channel.
The $19 million project included building a new ethanol unit-train facility capable of handling 14,000 b/d with space for multiple unit trains, an offloading rail rack for unit-trains of approximately 100 railcars, and an 80,000-bbl storage tank at DPRT.
The company also extended an existing ethanol pipeline by 2.4 miles so that product can be moved from DPRT to its Pasadena terminal for either storage or blending at multiple area truck racks.
Kinder Morgan successfully unloaded the first ethanol trains last week and has plans to expand the facility to handle 20,000 b/d.
Combined with other expansions and acquisitions already completed or underway, the company has now invested approximately $550 million in the renewable fuels handling business.
The project is supported by long-term customer contracts and is expected to be immediately accretive to KMP unit-holders. With the DPRT facility, Kinder Morgan now has six unit-train facilities located in key markets across the United States — Lomita and Richmond, Calif., Dallas and Deer Park, Texas, Baltimore, Md., and Linden, N.J.
These facilities, along with the company’s other ethanol terminal assets, will help meet the nation’s growing need for biofuels mandated by the renewable fuels standard. In 2010, KMP handled approximately 30% of the ethanol used in the United States.
