First ethane export departs new Houston terminal

Enterprise loaded a vessel with the natural gas liquid for the first time at its Port of Houston facility.    Enterprise Products Partners has opened a new ethane export terminal in the Port of Houston, one of many industrial developments on the ship channel and throughout the Gulf Coast, made possible by the boom in oil and gas production from fracking.
   The Houston Port Authority said that a vessel departed the terminal at Morgan’s Point with the first cargo of ethane, a natural gas liquid that is primarily used as a feedstock for ethylene production.
   Enterprise signed a long-term lease for use of the port’s facilities adjacent to Enterprise’s existing terminal at Morgan’s Point.
   The Port of Houston is home to the largest petrochemical manufacturing complex in the United States.