Phillips 66 (PSX -0.66%) announced today that it is planning to build a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) terminal in Freeport, Texas. The proposed terminal would provide 4.4 million barrels per month of LPG export capacity. The facility is needed to meet the needs of the growing global market for U. S. energy products.
According to Tim Taylor, executive vice president, Phillips 66 Commercial, Marketing, Transportation and Business Development, the company is "looking at a rapidly changing energy landscape that presents excellent opportunities in the natural gas liquids (NGL) piece of our Midstream business."
The facility is just one of many recent announcements geared toward increasing LPG export capacity. Enterprise Product Partners (EPD 0.48%) is one recent example as the company announced it was expanding an existing LPG export facility and then followed that up by announcing it plans to build a second export facility.
American oil and gas producers have focused drilling in recent years on the liquids-rich portions of the shale plays. This has increased the output of NGLs like propane and butane. With American markets saturated, producers are looking to export more of these liquefied petroleum gas products. Taylor summed this up by saying that there "are attractive markets outside of the United States for products like butane and propane," which is why Phillips 66 is joining the export parade.
