Enterprise Products Partners expects to load over 5 million barrels of propylene in 2017, around double the volume exported in 2016, Enterprise said Monday.
Enterprise exported its first shipment of polymer-grade propylene to Asia in late December. The 160,000 barrel shipment was more than double Enterprise’s typical load, making it the company’s largest cargo of propylene ever fixed, CEO Jim Teague said Monday.
Exports of propylene are expected to increase in 2017 as Enterprise plans to bring online its new on-purpose propylene production unit.
A 750,000 mt/year propane dehydrogenation unit in Mont Belvieu, Texas, is slated to begin commercial operation mid-2017, Teague said.
The PDH unit, only the third of its kind in North America, is under construction and is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2017, Enterprise spokesman Rick Rainey has said previously.
When first announced, the unit was projected to be online by late 2015, but delays pushed back its completion gradually to Q1 2017, according to a company filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in Q1 2016.
