Fourth-quarter results began to show some of the effects of the rout in energy prices as the company’s biggest segment — NGL Pipelines and Services — saw a drop in quarterly gross margin compared to a year ago.

Enterprise said gross margin for 2014 was $5.3 billion, a 10% increase from a year ago, while fourth-quarter of $1.4 billion was up about 5% from the year-ago quarter. The Oiltanking Partners acquisition added $63 million of gross margin for the fourth quarter. Net income for 2014 rose 9% to $2.8 billion, but fourth-quarter net income dropped $25 million from a year ago to $681 million, as gains from asset sales and insurance recoveries were offset by non-cash asset impairment charges and severance and other costs related to the Oiltanking acquisition.

NGL Pipelines and Services reported gross operating margin of $705 million for the fourth quarter, a $32 million drop from the year-ago quarter. Most of the decrease stemmed from the natural gas processing and NGL marketing business, which saw gross operating margin fall 24% to $257 million in the last quarter.

Gross operating margin at its natural gas processing plants fell due to lower processing margins and equity NGL production. Enterprise reported equity NGL production of 90,000 b/d in the fourth-quarter, compared to 145,000 b/d a year earlier due to lower ethane recovery. Fee-based natural gas processing volumes dropped 0.2 billion cubic feet per day to 4.5 billion cubic feet per day.

Marketing gross margin in the fourth quarter also took a hit as export activity was more associated with long-term, fee-based contracts rather than higher margin spot business seen in the year-earlier quarter.

Volumes on Enterprise’s NGL pipelines were roughly flat in fourth quarter at 2.9 million b/d. But the pipeline and storage business did see a 27% gain in gross margin to $317 million, thanks in part to increasing volumes on newer pipelines, and higher revenues on deficiency fees and increased tariffs on legacy pipelines.

Enterprise’s fractionation business saw volume increase 7% to 837,000 b/d, but gross margin dropped $18 million to $132 million due to lower relative prices of NGL components and higher operating expenses.

The onshore crude oil and pipelines segment, though, saw a 40% gain in operating margin to $228 million in the fourth quarter. Crude and related services at Oiltanking provided about half the gain in this segment. But Enterprise also said gross margin was helped by the Seaway Crude Pipeline, as well as its West Texas and South Texas crude pipelines, the Eagle Ford joint venture pipeline and the ECHO terminal.

Enterprise’s petrochemical and refined products services segment saw gross operating margin increase 13% to $199 million in the fourth quarter, thanks in large part to increased sales and volumes in the propylene business. Refined
products pipelines and services also provided gains thanks to the reactivation of Enterprise’s Beaumont marine terminal and activity at Oiltanking’s Beaumont terminal.