Ship tracking data on Wednesday showed that the first tanker to arrive at the Enterprise Products Partners facility for loading was a liquefied gas tanker.

The energy research firm Vortexa stated that the mooring was a sign of the commissioning. Enterprise did not respond to a comment request immediately.

Enterprise, one the largest U.S. producers and exporters of ethane, has added to its natural-gas liquids business, by building and expanding facilities for exporting ethane, and propane, to meet increasing global demand.

In April, the company announced plans to build a new facility that could be used for either ethane loading or propane loading, on the Neches river in Orange County, Texas.

Ethane is a by-product of the oil and gas industry. Ethane can be used to produce plastics while propane is primarily used for heating, cooking and lighting.

The Phase 1 Neches River Project by Enterprise has a capacity of 125,000 barrels a day. It can accommodate up to 45,000 barges per hour. The project was scheduled to start service in 2025.

According to data from LSEG and Kpler, the medium-sized gas tanker Navigator Eclipse docked at Enterprise Beaumont late on Tuesday.

Kpler reports that the vessel has been moving ethane only between U.S.A. and China, since May 2021.

Samantha Hartke, a Vortexa employee, wrote that the vessel will likely head to Satellite Chemical’s Lianyungang Import Terminal in China to receive its commissioning cargo.

Satellite is not available outside office hours.

The commissioning phase is used by a company to ensure that all aspects of the plant are functioning before it begins commercial operations.

The second phase of the terminal will begin operating in the first half 2026. It will enable Enterprise to load up 180,000 bpd ethane, 360,000 bpd propane or a mixture of both. (Reporting and editing by Nia William in Houston, Arathy S. Somasekhar)

(source: Reuters)