NGL Pipelines & Services
Our NGL Pipeline & Services business segment includes our NGL and petrochemical storage facility located in Mont Belvieu, Texas and our South Texas NGL System that connects our Mont Belvieu storage complex to midstream energy infrastructure located in South Texas. In addition, this segment includes the results of our NGL marketing activities related to our Big Thicket Gathering System. The South Texas NGL System consists of: (i) two NGL fractionation facilities; (ii) approximately 380 miles of intrastate NGL transportation pipelines that link various South Texas natural gas processing facilities to the Shoup and Armstrong plants and other customers; and (iii) two intrastate NGL pipelines aggregating approximately 937 miles that deliver NGLs from our south Texas fractionation facilities to refineries and petrochemical plants located between Corpus Christi and Houston, Texas and within the Texas City-Houston area, as well as to common carrier NGL pipelines and product storage facilities including our Mont Belvieu storage complex.
Our NGL pipelines (i) transport mixed NGLs from natural gas processing facilities and refineries to NGL fractionation plants and storage facilities and (iii) distribute to, and collect purity NGL products from, petrochemical plants and refineries.
Our NGL and petrochemical storage facilities receive, store and deliver NGLs and petrochemical products for industrial customers located along the Texas Gulf Coast. This area has the largest concentration of petrochemical plants and refineries in the United States. Our NGL and petrochemical storage facilities are interconnected by multiple pipelines to other producing and offtake facilities throughout the Gulf Coast region
NGL products (ethane, propane, normal butane, isobutene and natural gasoline) are used as raw materials by the petrochemical industry, as feedstocks by refiners in the production of motor gasoline and by industrial and residential users as fuel. Ethane is primarily used in the petrochemical industry as a feedstock for ethylene production, one of the basic building blocks for a wide range of plastics and other chemical products. Propane is used both as a petrochemical feedstock in the production of ethylene and propylene and as a heating, engine and industrial fuel. Normal butane is used as a petrochemical feedstock in the production of ethylene and butadiene (a key ingredient of synthetic rubber), as a blendstock for motor gasoline and to derive isobutene through isomerization. Isobutane is fractionated from mixed butane (a mixed stream of normal butane and isobutene) or produced from normal butane through the process of isomerization, principally for use in refinery alkylation to enhance the octane content of motor gasoline, in the production of isooctane and other octane additives, and in the production of propylene oxide. Natural gasoline, a mixture of pentanes and heavier hydrocarbons, is primarily used as a blendstock for motor gasoline or a as a petrochemical feedstock.
The following assets are included in our NGL Pipelines & Services segment:
| Asset | Capacity | Miles | Location |
| NGL pipelines: | |||
| South Texas NGL System | 1,317 | Texas | |
| NGL and petrochemical storage facilities: | (MMBbls) | ||
| Mont Belvieu Storage (33 caverns) (1) | 103.5 | Texas | |
| Almeda (6 caverns) (1,2) | 13.4 | Texas | |
| Markham (2 caverns) (1,2) | 4.3 | Texas | |
| Total useable capacity | 121.2 | ||
| NGL fractionation facilities: | (MBPD) | ||
| Shoup | 69 | Texas | |
| Armstrong | 18 | Texas | |
| Total plant capacities | 87 |
(1) The Mont Belvieu storage complex includes above-ground brine pit capacity of 20 MMBbls. Brine capacity at the Almeda and Markham facilities is limited to the quantity necessary to support the product storage operations.
(2) These assets are an integral part of the South Texas NGL System.