December 19, 2016 [OPIS] - Phillips 66 said on Friday that its Freeport liquefied petroleum gas export terminal located in Freeport, Texas, is fully operational, and the company loaded its first contracted cargo on the Commander, a Very Large Gas Carrier that departed the terminal today.
This follows the first LPG cargo loaded and exported during a facility commissioning process at Phillips 66’s Freeport terminal in November.
OPIS reported on Nov. 14 that Phillips 66’s new 150,000-b/d Freeport LPG Export Terminal in Texas loaded and sent off its first Very Large Gas Carrier.
BW Broker departed from Freeport, Texas, anchorage at around 2 p.m. local time on Nov. 14 after arriving there Nov. 6 for cargo loading. There were three other ships booked for loading at Freeport during the commissioning process.
“The previous cargo was the first of several commissioning cargoes. Commissioning is the process of testing equipment, product specifications and procedures when starting up a new facility to ensure it is working as designed,” a company spokesman said on Friday.
“While some of the equipment at Freeport was not yet fully operational at that time, we were able to load cargos at a lower rate than we would under normal operating conditions,” he added.
Some traders said that many term contracts for oil products for new facilities only begin when the product quality at a new facility is stabilized after a commissioning and testing period.
“The startup of the Freeport LPG Export Terminal is the culmination of a four-year effort to develop a new U.S. Gulf Coast natural gas liquids (NGL) market hub that also includes Phillips 66 Partners’ 100,000 b/d Sweeny fractionator and 7.5 million barrel Clemens storage facility,” said Greg Garland, chairman and CEO of Phillips 66.
“The new liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) export terminal gives customers the ability to place multi-grade LPG products directly into global markets through Port Freeport, which provides immediate blue water access with minimal congestion,” he said.
The Freeport LPG Export Terminal can simultaneously load two ships with refrigerated propane and butane at a combined rate of 36,000 barrels per hour. Supply is sourced from the Phillips 66 Partners’ Sweeny fractionator and Clemens storage facility, which is connected by pipeline to the Mont Belvieu Hub.
The export facility was developed to satisfy the growing international demand for affordable U.S. NGL. Expecting U.S. production to continue to grow, Phillips 66 is actively evaluating additional NGL fractionation and infrastructure alternatives along the U.S. Gulf Coast, Phillips 66 said.
