The natural gas export debate remains pretty heated, especially with new export facilities being approved at a more rapid pace. At the same time, propane exports continue to slip out of the country with little fanfare. Where is all the propane going?
America is the propane export king
The U.S. is currently the world's top exporter of propane. It has surged past Middle Eastern rivals such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to take the top spot at more than 70 million barrels. That's well ahead of last year's more than 55 million barrels.
The company leading this surge is Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD ) . The midstream operator alone has exported nearly 60 million barrels of propane this year. It's not content with the status quo, either, continuing to ramp up export capacity and recently announcing another expansion at its LPG export facility in the Houston Ship Channel. The project, which won't be complete until 2015, adds another 1.5 million barrels per month of propane export capacity.
What's key here is that without Enterprise's export capacity, U.S. natural gas producers would be in trouble. As the following chart shows, without exports last year the U.S. would be significantly oversupplied with propane. Read more here.
No comments:
Post a Comment