Enterprise Products Partners co-CEO Jim Teague said the company would expand its petrochemical operations beyond midstream and upstream businesses. Enterprise entered the petrochemical market in the 1970s when it built its first of seven propylene splitters. Over time, the company expanded its petrochemical operations by establishing a polymer-grade propylene market hub which became the pricing point for ICE and CME Group propylene futures contracts.
Enterprise also runs a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit at Mont Belvieu, Texas, and is working on a second unit projected for start-up in 2023. In 2013, the company opened the only propylene export terminal in the US with a capacity of 1.58 million tons/year. It also launched a new isobutane dehydrogenation unit in December 2019. In January 2020, it shipped the first cargo from its 1 million tons/year ethylene export terminal along the Houston Ship Channel. This year, it acquired a subsidiary of NOVA Chemicals which operated an ethylene trading hub and storage business in Mont Belvieu.
Teague expects Enterprise to expand its propylene and ethylene export capacity. Enterprise also plans to ship propylene and ethylene from the Mississippi River to Corpus Christi through a pipeline. However, Teague added that the company is not interested in constructing a new ethane-fed cracker or acquiring an existing unit.
