Lone Star NGL LLC has started up the second natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionator at its Mont Belvieu, TX, facility. Lone Star Frac II is a 100,000 b/d fractionator that brings Lone Star’s total fractionation capacity at Mont Belvieu to 200,000 b/d. Lone Star is a joint venture of Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP) and Regency Energy Partners LP. The fractionators receive NGLs from several sources, including Lone Star’s west Texas NGL pipelines and ETP’s Justice NGL pipeline. Volumes transported on Lone Star’s pipeline system and the ETP Justice pipeline continue to ramp up as shippers under long-term agreements with Lone Star and ETP increase their production from the Permian Basin, Eagle Ford Shale, and other producing regions, the companies said.

Service has begun on the Texas Express natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline from Skellytown, TX, to the NGL fractionation and storage complex in Mont Belvieu, TX. The Texas Express Pipeline, operated by Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD), gives producers in West and Central Texas, the Rocky Mountains, southern Oklahoma, the Midcontinent and the Denver-Julesburg basin takeaway capacity for growing NGL volumes and improved access to the largest NGL trading hub, located along the Gulf Coast. Partners in the project are EPD, Enbridge Energy Partners LP (EEP), Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) and DCP Midstream Partners LP (DPM). NGL volumes from the Rockies, Permian Basin and Midcontinent regions will be transported to the Texas Express mainline through Enterprise’s Mid-America Pipeline system between the Conway hub and its Hobbs facility in Gaines County, TX. NGL volumes from the Denver-Julesburg Basin will be transported to Texas Express by the Front Range Pipeline (owned by a joint venture comprised of Enterprise, APC and DPM, each with a one-third interest), which is under construction and expected to be in-service during the first quarter. Supported by long-term contracts, the 583-mile pipeline has an initial capacity of 280,000 b/d and can be expanded to 400,000 b/d.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) will convene a panel to investigate a death on an offshore platform Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico. The platform is more than 55 miles south of Louisiana. Peter Jorge E. Voces was working on the Vermilion Block 200 A Platform, which is operated by Energy Resource Technology/Talos Energy LLC, when he fell into the water. Voces was a member of a derrick barge crew that was dismantling the platform. The panel will include BSEE inspectors, investigators and engineers from both the Gulf of Mexico region and headquarters in addition to a representative from the U.S. Coast Guard. Last summer, an Energy Resource Technology well about 74 miles southwest of Port Fourchon, LA, experienced a natural gas leak (see Daily GPI, July 15).