Energy Transfer is focusing its efforts on natural gas liquids (NGLs) exports into Latin America as it seeks to diversify its customer base around the globe, the company said today.
The Dallas-based midstream operator has set up a Latin American team to explore business opportunities in the region, including in a new Panama office where it signed an MOU in 2021 to explore a pipeline across the isthmus to facilitate LPG and other commodity flows rather than relying on an increasingly congested canal.
"Latin America has been a challenge, because what happens is, nothing's big," Energy Transfer chairman Kelcy Warren told attendees at the Argus Americas Crude Summit in Houston, Texas, today. "You've got Belize, Guatemala, but if you aggregate it all, it's enough to make it work."
While Energy Transfer's ethane export operations currently accommodate shipments to petrochemical buyers in China and Europe, ethane is also a good option for power generation in Latin America, he said.
"The fuel of choice for power generation (in Latin America) is going to be ethane," Warren said. "It's easier to transport, easier to extract. It's a product you take out of the gas stream at the cryo," which makes it easier to store back into the natural gas stream if needed, he said.
Vortexa tracking showed Energy Transfer's Nederland, Texas, export facility shipped on average 219,570t per month of ethane in 2023. Its Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, terminal shipped 105,685 t per month last year.
