May 03, 2013 [OPIS] - Enterprise Products Partners plans to significantly expand its crude storage and distribution infrastructure serving the Southeast Texas refinery market, and this will be completed by the fourth quarter of 2014, the company said Thursday.
This expansion, which will be completed in phases, includes adding 4 million barrels of new crude storage capacity at ECHO (Enterprise’s Crude Oil Houston) and Bertron facilities, Enterprise also said.
It will also see the addition of some 55 miles of 24-inch and 36-inch pipeline to directly connect ECHO with the major refineries in the Southeast Texas market.
Specifically, the ECHO storage capacity will be expanded to over 6 million barrels of capacity eventually, and would have access to Enterprise’s marine terminal at Morgan’s Point on the Houston Ship Channel.
Southeast Texas refineries have an aggregate capacity of about 3.6 million b/d. Historically, these refineries have been primarily supplied by waterborne crude imports.
With the success of North American producers, crude from the Eagle Ford, Permian, Midcontinent, Bakken and Canada are flowing into Southeast Texas and displacing the waterborne imports.
