Enterprise Products Partners

Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Williams

Corvex Raider Launches Hostile Takeover Attempt of Williams
August 26, 2016August 26, 2016

Corporate raider and Carl Icahn protege Keith “Mini-Me” Meister, Managing Partner of Corvex Management, has launched a full-out assault and takeover attempt of midstream company Williams. Yesterday MDN reported that Meister has floated a slate of 10 of his own people–including himself–as candidates for the board of directors for a scheduled vote during the annual meeting later this year (see Corp Raider Who Quit Williams Board Wants Now Wants Back On). Mini-Me tried this before and it failed (see Half of Williams Board, Including 2 Corporate Raiders, Quit). This time Mini-Me is trying to fight his proxy war via the court of public opinion. Writing on the Seeking Alpha investors website, Mini-Me Meister offers lame excuses for why he “must” attempt a takeover of Williams…
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Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Williams

Corporate Raiders Try to Incite Shareholder Revolt at Williams
August 22, 2016August 22, 2016

On Friday MDN reported that Enterprise Products Partners, a huge midstream company, wants to buy Williams (see Here We Go Again: Enterprise Products Wants to Buy Williams). Yes, we’ve seen this movie before. Last year Energy Transfer Equity’s CEO Kelcy Warren tried the same thing–which ended in disaster earlier this year (see Dead as a Doornail: ETE Terminates Merger with Williams). History is repeating itself. The same agitators–corporate raiders–are once again pressuring Williams to accept the Enterprise offer as they tried to get Williams to accept ETE’s earlier offer. Keith “Mini Me” Meister, a protege of Carl Icahn, is one of the corporate raiders pressuring Williams. Why? So Mini-Me can flip his large amount of Williams stock at a considerable profit (screwing employees of Williams in the process). Once again, here’s why corporate raiders, like Keith Meister, are disgusting low-lifes in our book…
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Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Williams

Here We Go Again: Enterprise Products Wants to Buy Williams
August 19, 2016August 19, 2016

Just when you thought things had finally settled down with midstream giant Williams, a new rumor is making the rounds. Brief history: Energy Transfer Equity’s (ETE) billionaire CEO Kelsy Warren propositioned Williams for over six months before going public with his overtures (see Energy Transfer Makes “Indecent Proposal” to Buy Williams for $48B). Williams resisted, but eventually they caved and agreed to the deal, although the deal price went down by $10 billion (see Williams Accepts ETE’s “Indecent Proposal” – Price Went Down $10B). Warren claims he got snookered and got cold feet, eventually bailing (see Dead as a Doornail: ETE Terminates Merger with Williams). Now the rumor mill is buzzing. Another company, Enterprise Products Partners, is making overtures to buy Williams for an undisclosed sum…
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Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners

Enterprise Prod. Raises $100M via Unit Sale, Plans Another $200M
January 5, 2016January 5, 2016

Enterprise Products Partners is a big (really big) midstream/pipeline company. Enterprise built and operates the 1,230-mile ATEX (Appalachia-to-Texas Express) ethane pipeline runs from four fractionation plants in the Marcellus/Utica Shale region all the way to Mount Belvieu, TX. As we noted in an article yesterday, Enterprise has just completed and brought online a new pipeline that will potentially flow some of that Marcellus/Utica ethane all the way to Louisiana (see Marcellus/Utica Ethane can Now Hitch a Ride to LA via Aegis Pipe). As all companies in our sector attempt to not only expand, but simply survive, they use different methods. In some cases they sell debt in the form of IOUs (i.e. notes) or bonds, and in other cases they sell pieces of the company, typically stocks. Or in the case of master limited partnerships (MLPs), they sell “units” which are the equivalent of stocks. Enterprise is an MLP and has just sold $100 million worth of units with plans to sell another $200 million worth of units in the first quarter of this year, for a total of $300 million in cold, hard cash they can put to work in the company…
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Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Marcellus/Utica Ethane can Now Hitch a Ride to LA via Aegis Pipe
January 4, 2016January 4, 2016

Last week Enterprise Products Partners reported completing the remaining portion of the Aegis ethane pipeline that runs from Lake Charles, Louisiana to Napoleonville, Louisiana. Aegis is now online and flowing ethane. And that’s good for the Marcellus/Utica. Wait….what? Why is an ethane pipeline built in LA good for the northeast? Because that pipeline will almost certainly be flowing ethane from the Marcellus/Utica. Here’s the connection…
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Crude Oil | Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Exporting | Industrywide Issues

Enterprise Products First to Export Crude Post-Ban – Implications
December 28, 2015December 28, 2015

The very first shipment of crude oil from America’s shores to another country since the ban on crude exports was lifted two weeks ago in perhaps the worst national budget we’ve ever had (thanks to sell-out Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan), will happen the first week of January. Enterprise Products Partners, owner of the ATEX (Appalachia-to-Texas Express) natural gas liquids pipeline, will load 600,000 barrels of U.S. light sweet crude oil at the Enterprise Hydrocarbon Terminal (EHT) on the Houston Ship Channel and the ship will set sail in early January. How will oil exports affect the domestic (and international) oil industry?…
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Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners

Enterprise Products Gets Line of Credit Hike, Can Borrow $5.5B!
September 17, 2015September 17, 2015

From time to time we highlight companies that get their line of credit/borrowing power reevaluated by their bankers. Usually we spot announcements from exploration and production (E&P) companies, otherwise known as drillers on MDN. Sometimes we spot such announcements for midstream (or pipeline) companies. The one we spotted from yesterday about made our eyes pop out–by far the biggest such line of credit we’ve seen for a company with major operations in the northeast shale area. Enterprise Products Partners, which built and operates the 1,230-mile Appalachia-to-Texas Express (ATEX) ethane pipeline from Ohio to the Gulf Coast, announced they got a bump up in their credit line of $500 million. They now have the power to borrow up to $5.5 BILLION (yes, with a “b”). They could buy a small country with that kind of money…
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Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Industrywide Issues | Marathon Petroleum | NGLs | Pipelines

Centennial Pipeline May Reverse, Sending NE NGLs to the Gulf
September 14, 2015September 14, 2015

Centennial Pipeline map – click for larger version

On Friday MDN told you that after Marathon Petroleum buys MarkWest Energy, they are eyeing sending natural gas liquids (NGL) gathered by MarkWest south to the Gulf Coast (see Marathon Hints MarkWest Merger Plan May Include NGLs to Gulf). No specific plans were mentioned but a vague statement about “more details coming by the end of the year.” It seems some of those details have already leaked. The leaker is Marathon’s joint venture partner in the Centennial Pipeline, Enterprise Products Partners. Enterprise said at an investors conference last week that they are actively evaluating a plan to reverse the flow of the Centennial from Illinois to the Gulf Coast to send NGLs from the Marcellus/Utica to the Gulf for processing and use in cracker/petrochemical plants…
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Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Taxation

ATEX Express Ethane Pipeline Says it’s Tax-Exempt in Ohio
June 11, 2015June 11, 2015

School districts and local governments in 13 Ohio counties along which the ATEX (Appalachia-to-Texas Express) natural gas liquids pipeline runs, are miffed that ATEX doesn’t want to pay property taxes on the pipeline. The 1,230-mile ATEX pipeline originates in Washington County, PA and connects to four fractionators in the Marcellus/Utica Shale region. The pipeline, which crosses 265 miles of Ohio, went online in early 2014 (see Let it Flow! ATEX Ethane Pipeline Testing Now, Online Soon). State law stipulates that only pipelines classified as public utilities are liable for property taxes. Private, non-public utility pipelines are not on the hook for local property taxes. However, ATEX may be liable for Ohio’s commercial activity tax…
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Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners

Enterprise Products Partners Just Raised $100M from Itself
March 18, 2015March 18, 2015

Enterprise Products Partners is a very big midstream company (pipelines and processing plants). They are the builder of the Appalachia-to-Texas Express (ATEX) ethane pipeline, which stretches from the Marcellus all the way to the Gulf Coast. Enterprise joins a list of companies doing creative things to bring cash through the door. On Monday, Enterprise announced that one division (or affiliate) of the company has purchased 3.2 million “units” (think shares of stock) in another division–bringing in $100 million that Enterprise will use “to fund a portion of its growth capital investments and for general company purposes.” That is, one set of investors just handed over $100 million to another set of investors in essentially the same company. Kind of mind-bender…
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Accidents | Brooke County | Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | West Virginia

ATEX Express Ethane Pipeline Now Fixed, 100% Back Online Today
February 13, 2015February 13, 2015

Sometime today, the Appalachia-to-Texas Express (ATEX) ethane pipeline will once again be fully operational. On January 26 a section of the pipeline in Brooke County, WV ruptured and caught fire (see ATEX Ethane Pipeline Explodes, Burns in Brooke County, WV). The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is investigating but so far they don’t have a final determination. When that section of the pipeline went offline, two of four processing facilities that feed ethane to the line we bumped off. Starting today, all four processing plants will once again be flowing ethane through the ATEX…
Read More “ATEX Express Ethane Pipeline Now Fixed, 100% Back Online Today”
Accidents | Brooke County | Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | West Virginia

PHMSA Update on ATEX Pipeline Explosion in WV – Faulty Weld?
January 30, 2015January 30, 2015

It’s been five days since a section of the Appalachia to Texas (ATEX) Express ethane pipeline ruptured/exploded and burned in Brooke County, WV (see ATEX Ethane Pipeline Explodes, Burns near Follansbee, WV). Since the pipeline is under the regulatory oversight of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), that organization is doing the investigation into the accident. The rupture and resulting fire burned approximately 24,000 barrels of ethane and scorched some 5 acres of woodland. What has the PHMSA learned so far? Not much. They have some theories, according to an initial report. It appears that the 20-inch pipeline ruptured near a section that had been welded together…
Read More “PHMSA Update on ATEX Pipeline Explosion in WV – Faulty Weld?”
Accidents | Brooke County | Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | West Virginia

Enterprise Releases 2014 Results – Remains Mum on ATEX Explosion
January 29, 2015January 29, 2015

Enterprise Products Partners, a huge $41 billion midstream company with 51,000 miles of pipelines, and the company that built the Appalachia to Texas (ATEX) Express pipeline, released their 2014 results today. In the update is no mention of the explosion and fire along the ATEX in Brooke County, WV that happened on Monday (see ATEX Ethane Pipeline Explodes, Burns in Brooke County, WV). We’ve looked, and haven’t found a peep about what caused the explosion. The agency charged with investigating the pipeline rupture is the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)…
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Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Industrywide Issues | MarkWest Energy | Pipelines | Sunoco Logistics | Williams

Envelope Please: 4 of 5 Top Midstream Companies in Marcellus/Utica
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

Who’s the “best of the best” when it comes to the midstream sector–for the entire country? It probably won’t surprise you to learn that the #1 midstream company in the Marcellus, by size of operations in the Marcellus, claimed the top spot in EnergyPoint Research’s 2014 Oil & Gas Midstream Services Customer Satisfaction Survey. That company is, of course, MarkWest Energy. What may surprise you is that Sunoco Logistics, currently under an intense smear campaign by anti-drillers who want to prevent the Mariner East natural gas liquids pipeline from beginning operation, came in at #2. Two other companies with major operations in the northeast are also in the top 5…
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Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Ethane | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Processing Plants

Marcellus/Utica Ethane Exports on the Way – from the Gulf Coast!
April 23, 2014April 23, 2014

Enterprise Products Partners, builder of the ATEX (Appalachia-to-Texas Express) ethane pipeline from Washington County, PA through Ohio and all the way to the Gulf Coast, has just announced what they plan to do with some of the ethane they’re sending to the Gulf Coast. Yes, right now it’s being sold to cracker plants along the Gulf Coast for processing into ethylene (used to make plastics), but Enterprise has just announced they will build an ethane export facility and send some of that cheap, abundant ethane to foreign destinations.

Enterprise says U.S. production capacity and use for ethane exceeds demand and it only makes sense to export some good, ole American energy to other countries. Good for them, and good for u$…
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Energy Services | Enterprise Products Partners | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation

NPGA Asks FERC to Reverse Flow of ATEX Pipeline & Pump Propane
February 7, 2014February 7, 2014

There is a serious, some would say “dangerous” shortage of propane in the northeast, for a number of reasons. The ongoing, brutally cold winter is partially to blame (oh global warming, where are thou? we need thee now!). In what appears to MDN to be a case of sour grapes, the National Propane Gas Association (NPGA), representing some 3,200 propane companies, has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to force the brand new Appalachia to Texas (ATEX) pipeline to quite pumping ethane from the Utica/Marcellus to Gulf Coast and instead reverse the flow and pump propane from the Gulf to the northeast citing the propane shortage as the reason.

Well, it is an emergency, right? Why do we say sour grapes? Because part of the newly online ATEX was an existing pipeline that used to flow south to north and carry (you guessed it)–propane. The NPGA and its members opposed losing that capacity and challenged Enterprise Product Partners, the builder of the ATEX, in court. They lost. So it appears they’re using the current “crisis,” which is partially brought on by high demand from the cold and partially lack of storage capacity, which is the fault of NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as an excuse to get the pipeline turned around, at least for a period of time…
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