Southcross Energy plans to construct a 200 MMcf/d gas processing plant in Refugio County, TX, to handle liquids-rich production from the Eagle Ford Shale, the Dallas-based company said Tuesday.

The plant would be the company’s largest processing facility. Southcross said it also is enhancing efficiency and increasing the capacity of its Gregory processing plant, 13 miles east of Corpus Christi, TX, in San Patricio County, to 135 MMcf/d. The projects would give the company processing capacity of 335 MMcf/d in the region.

“These processing plant projects mesh well with the major pipeline extension we are constructing into McMullen County” (see Shale Daily, March 11), said Southcross CEO David W. Biegler. “The Eagle Ford Shale is the most actively drilled U.S. shale play today, and we are expanding Southcross’ strategically located pipeline and processing assets to participate in this growth.”

The Eagle Ford Shale leads all of the other plays in NGI’s Shale Daily Unconventional Rig Count in the number of active rigs with 179. No. 2 is the Bakken/Sanish/Three Forks with 172 rigs active as of last Friday.

The Southcross plants would provide producers with multiple options for residue gas disposition via various pipeline interconnects and connections to the local industrial market in the Corpus Christi Ship Channel, Southcross said. Multiple options for natural gas liquids disposition at the plant tailgates are planned.

The Eagle Ford has been a hotbed for midstream activity as the sector has followed producers into the liquids-rich play. Enterprise Products Partners LP has a number of projects targeting the Eagle Ford, including processing capacity (see Shale Daily, May 12).