Enterprise crude, condensate exports rising

OREANDA-NEWS. February 26, 2016.  Enterprise Products Partners loaded 4mn bl of crude and condensate in January and 3mn bl so far in February on foreign-flagged vessels, showing high interest from global customers since the lifting of the US export ban.

The company has nominations for more than 6mn bl in March, said chief executive Jim Teague at the IHS CeraWeek conference in Houston.

"We've learned from our LPG exports that other countries want US supply, especially Asia," he said. "They want to see price transparency out of place that is reliable."

Enterprise's Houston terminal handled one of the first exports of US crude after the US in December lifted 40-year-old restrictions on exports, a 600,000 bl cargo of light crude from the Eagle Ford shale that trading house Vitol shipped to Europe earlier this month.

Enterprise acquired the terminal as part of its merger with Oiltanking Partners in November 2014, which combined two major operators of crude storage and pipelines on the Gulf coast.

As for the long period of depressed commodity prices, Teague said, "People keep calling it a cycle, I call it pure hell."