Targa continues to expand terminal, propane export capabilities

Targa Resources Partners LP announced this week that it has acquired additional property on the Houston Ship Channel that provides expansion potential for its Petroleum Logistics clean fuels business and its propane/butane export capabilities. The initial investment, including acquisition of the property and dock upgrade and refurbishment, is about $25 million, the company says.

Targa Patriot, which is located about two miles from the partnership’s Galena Park Marine Terminal, includes an existing dock, acreage for expansion build-out, an existing rail siding and nearby access to the Colonial/Explorer refined products pipeline interconnect hub. Targa says the proximity of the Patriot Terminal to its existing petroleum logistics business at Channelview and to its LP gas exports facilities at Galena Park offers cost-effective future options to meet growing customer and market demands for both product services.

The Patriot Terminal can be readily connected to Galena Park and to Targa’s Mont Belvieu complex, including the Cedar Bayou Fractionator facilities, and is complementary to Targa’s propane/butane export business, the company says.

LP gas exports have grown rapidly with significant volumes of domestic grade propane (HD5) and butane, and the partnership’s previously announced major capital program will create significant incremental capability for export of international grade propane, the company notes. The international export project will come online in two phases, in third-quarter 2013 and third-quarter 2014, and Targa has largely contracted its anticipated capacity.

If the need for propane/butane export capacity continues to grow, the Patriot Terminal provides Targa and its customers with economically attractive interconnected expansion potential, the company says. Further plans for clean fuels and/or propane/butane export activity are being developed, Targa says, and could significantly increase growth capital expenditures over time.