Kinder Morgan enhancing Houston Ship Channel facilities
Kinder Morgan (KMI) recently revealed a series of projects that total more than $170 million of capital investment in the Houston area.
The company says the additions will increase efficiency, add product liquidity and enhance blending capabilities at its Pasadena and Galena Park terminals, which are part of its refined products storage hub on the Houston Ship Channel.
“These projects speak to Kinder Morgan’s continued commitment to excellence and to improving our already best-in-class facilities along the Houston Ship Channel,” said John Schlosser, president of Terminals for KMI.
KMI’s liquids terminal platform now boasts 10 ship docks, 38 barge spots and 20 inbound pipelines providing connectivity to 10 regional refineries and chemical plants, 15 outbound pipelines, 14 cross-channel lines, and approximately 43 million barrels of storage on the ship channel, North America’s leading port for energy exports.
The company plans to invest approximately $125 million on enhancements to its Pasadena Terminal and Jefferson Street Truck Rack, including:
- Increased flow rates on inbound pipeline connections and outbound dock lines, significantly reducing vessel load times and expanding effective dock capacity.
- Tank modifications that will provide for butane blending and vapor combustion capabilities on 10 storage tanks, with the option to extend those capabilities to an additional 25 tanks or more.
- Expansion of the current methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) storage and blending platform, including a dedicated cross-channel MTBE line serving vessels being loaded at Pasadena’s North Docks.
- A new, dedicated natural gasoline (C5) inbound connection, enhancing customers’ blendstock supply optionality and liquidity.
The improvements, which KMI says are expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2020, are supported by a long-term agreement with a major refiner for approximately 2 million barrels of refined petroleum products storage capacity at the terminal.
In addition to the enhancements at the Pasadena Terminal, KMI also plans to invest more than $45 million to develop and construct a butane-on-demand blending system for 25 tanks at its Galena Park Terminal.
The project will include construction of a 30,000-barrel butane sphere, a new inbound C4 pipeline connection, as well as tank and piping modifications to extend butane blending capabilities to 25 tanks, two ship docks, and six cross-channel pipelines. The project is supported by a long-term agreement with an investment-grade midstream company and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2020.
“The announced improvements only serve to enhance our position as the market-leading refined petroleum products storage hub on the US Gulf Coast,” Schlosser said. “This offers our customers unmatched supply optionality and liquidity and modal efficiencies as they aim to maximize storage and blending economics and access domestic and global energy markets in the most cost effective manner possible.”