Best Transportation Companies To Own In Right Now

Best Transportation Companies To Own In Right Now: Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD)

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (Enterprise), incorporated on April 9, 1998, owns and operates natural gas liquids (NGLs) related businesses of Enterprise Products Company (EPCO). The Company is a North American provider of midstream energy services to producers and consumers of natural gas, NGLs, crude oil, refined products and certain petrochemicals. Its midstream energy asset network links producers of natural gas, NGLs and crude oil from supply basins in the United States, Canada and the Gulf of Mexico with domestic consumers and international markets. Its midstream energy operations include natural gas gathering, treating, processing, transportation and storage; NGL transportation, fractionation, storage, and import and export terminals; crude oil gathering and transportation, storage and terminals; offshore production platforms; petrochemical and refined products transportation and services; and a marine transportation business that operates on the United States in land and Intracoastal Waterway systems and in the Gulf of Mexico. Its assets include approximately 50,000 miles of onshore and offshore pipelines; 200 million barrels of storage capacity for NGLs, petrochemicals, refined products and crude oil; and 14 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage capacity. In addition, its asset portfolio includes 24 natural gas processing plants, 21 NGL and propylene fractionators, six offshore hub platforms located in the Gulf of Mexico, a butane isomerization complex, NGL import and export terminals, and octane isobutylene production facilities. The Company operates in five business segments: NGL Pipelines & Services; Onshore Natural Gas Pipelines & Services; Onshore Crude Oil Pipelines & Services; Offshore Pipelines & Services, and Petrochemical & Refined Products Services.

NGL Pipelines & ! Services

The Company's NGL Pipelines & Services business segment includes its natural gas processing plants and related NGL m arketing activities; approximately 16,700 miles of NGL pipel! ines; NGL and related product storage facilities; and 14 NGL fractionators. This segment also includes its import and export terminal operations. At the core of its natural gas processing business are 24 processing plants located across Colorado, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming. Natural gas produced at the wellhead (especially in association with crude oil) contains varying amounts of NGLs. Once the mixed component NGLs are extracted by a natural gas processing plant, they are transported to a centralized fractionation facility for separation into purity NGL products. Once processed, this natural gas is available for sale through its natural gas marketing activities. Its NGL marketing activities generate revenues from the sale and delivery of NGLs it takes title to through its natural gas processing activities and open market and contract purchases from third parties. Its NGL marketing activities utilize a fleet of approximately 670 railcars, the majori ty of which are leased from third parties.

The Company's NGL pipelines transport mixed NGLs and other hydrocarbons from natural gas processing facilities, refineries and import terminals to fractionation plants and storage facilities; distribute and collect NGL products to and from fractionation plants, storage and terminal facilities, petrochemical plants, export facilities and refineries, and deliver propane to customers along the Dixie Pipeline and certain sections of the Mid-America Pipeline System. Revenues from its NGL pipeline transportation agreements are based upon a fixed fee per gallon of liquids transported multiplied by the volume delivered. Certain of its NGL pipelines offer firm capacity reservation services. It collects storage revenues under its NGL and related product storage contracts based on th! e number ! of days a customer has volumes in storage multiplied by a storage fee. In addition, it charges customers throughput fees based on volumes delivered into and subsequently withdrawn from storage. Its ! principal! NGL pipelines include Mid-America Pipeline System, South Texas NGL Pipeline System, Seminole Pipeline, Dixie Pipeline, Chaparral NGL System, Louisiana Pipeline System, Skelly-Belvieu Pipeline, Promix NGL Gathering System, Houston Ship Channel pipeline, Rio Grande Pipeline, Panola Pipeline and Lou-Tex NGL Pipeline. It operates its NGL pipelines with the exception of the Tri-States pipeline.

The Company's NGL operations include import and export facilities located on the Houston Ship Channel in southeast Texas. It owns an import and export facility located on land it leases from Oiltanking Houston LP. Its import facility can offload NGLs from tanker vessels at rates up to 14,000 barrels per hour depending on the product. During the year ended December 31, 2012, its average combined NGL import and export volumes were 132 thousand barrels per day. In addition to its Houston Ship Channel import/export terminal, it owns a barge dock also located on the Houston Shi p Channel, which can load or offload two barges of NGLs or other products simultaneously at rates up to 5,000 barrels per hour.

The Company owns or have interests in 14 NGL fractionators located in Texas and Louisiana. NGL fractionators separate mixed NGL streams into purity NGL products. The primary sources of mixed NGLs fractionated in the United States are domestic natural gas processing plants, crude oil refineries and imports of butane and propane mixtures. Mixed NGLs sourced from domestic natural gas processing plants and crude oil refineries are transported by NGL pipelines and by railcar and truck to NGL fractionation facilities.

The Company's NGL fractionation facilities process mixed NGL streams for third party customers and support its NGL marketing activities. It earns reven! ues from ! NGL fractionation under fee-based arrangements, including a level of demand-based fees. At its Norco facility in Louisiana, it performs fractionatio n services for certain customers under percent-of-liquids co! ntracts. ! Its fee-based fractionation customers retain title to the NGLs, which it processes for them. Its NGL fractionators include Mont Belvieu fractionator, Shoup and Armstrong fractionator, Hobbs NGL fractionator, Norco NGL fractionator, Promix NGL fractionators and BRF fractionators.

Onshore Natural Gas Pipelines & Services

The Company's Onshore Natural Gas Pipelines & Services business segment includes approximately 19,900 miles of onshore natural gas pipeline systems, which provide for the gathering and transportation of natural gas in Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming. It leases salt dome natural gas storage facilities located in Texas and Louisiana and own a salt dome storage cavern in Texas, which are integral to its pipeline operations. This segment also includes its related natural gas marketing activities.

The Company's onshore natural gas pipeline systems and storage facilities provide for the gathering and tra nsportation of natural gas from producing regions, such as the San Juan, Barnett Shale, Permian, Piceance, Greater Green River, Haynesville Shale and Eagle Ford Shale supply basins in the western United States. In addition, these systems receive natural gas production from the Gulf of Mexico through coastal pipeline interconnects with offshore pipelines. Its onshore natural gas pipelines receive natural gas from producers, other pipelines or shippers at the wellhead or through system interconnects and redeliver the natural gas to processing facilities, local gas distribution companies, industrial or municipal customers, storage facilities or to other onshore pipelines.

Its onshore natural gas pipelines generates revenues from transportation agreements under which shippers are billed a fee per unit! of volum! e transported multiplied by the volume gathered or delivered. Its onshore natural gas pipelines offer firm capacity reservation services whereby the shipper p ays a contractually stated fee based on the level of through! put capac! ity reserved in its pipelines whether or not the shipper actually utilizes such capacity. Under its natural gas storage contracts, there are typically two components of revenues monthly demand payments, which are associated with a customer's storage capacity reservation and paid regardless of actual usage, and storage fees per unit of volume stored at its facilities. The Company's natural gas marketing activities generate revenues from the sale and delivery of natural gas obtained from third party well-head purchases, regional natural gas processing plants and the open market.

Onshore Crude Oil Pipelines & Services

The Company's Onshore Crude Oil Pipelines & Services business segment includes approximately 5,100 miles of onshore crude oil pipelines, crude oil storage terminals located in Oklahoma and Texas, and its crude oil marketing activities. Its onshore crude oil pipeline systems gather and transport crude oil in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas to refineries, centralized storage terminals and connecting pipelines. Revenue from crude oil transportation is based upon a fixed fee per barrel transported multiplied by the volume delivered.

The Company owns crude oil terminal facilities in Cushing, Oklahoma and Midland, Texas, which are used to store crude oil volumes for it and its customers. Under its crude oil terminaling agreements, it charges customers for crude oil storage based on the number of days a customer has volumes in storage multiplied by a contractual storage fee. With respect to storage capacity reservation agreements, it collects a fee for reserving storage capacity for customers at its terminals. In addition, it charges its customers throughput (or pumpover) fees based on volumes withdrawn from its terminals.! It provi! des fee-based trade documentation services whereby it documents the transfer of title for crude oil volumes transacted between buyers and sellers at its terminals. The Company's crude oil marketing activities generate revenues! from the! sale and delivery of crude oil obtained from producers or on the open market.

Offshore Pipelines & Services

The Company's Offshore Pipelines & Services business segment serves active drilling and development regions, including deepwater production fields, in the northern Gulf of Mexico offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. This segment includes approximately 2,300 miles of offshore natural gas and crude oil pipelines and six offshore hub platforms. Its offshore Gulf of Mexico pipelines provide for the gathering and transportation of natural gas or crude oil. Revenue from its offshore pipelines is derived from fee-based agreements whereby the customer is charged a fee per unit of volume gathered or transported multiplied by the volume delivered. Poseidon Oil Pipeline Company, L.L.C. (Poseidon), in which it has a 36% equity method investment, purchases crude oil from producers and shippers at a receipt point (at a fixed or index-base d price less a location differential) and then sells quantities of crude oil at onshore Louisiana locations (at the same fixed or index-based price, as applicable).

The Company's offshore platforms are components of its pipeline operations. Platforms are used to interconnect the offshore pipeline network; provide means to perform pipeline maintenance; locate compression, separation and production handling equipment and similar assets, and conduct drilling operations during the initial development phase of an oil and natural gas property. Revenues from offshore platform services consist of demand fees and commodity charges. Revenue from commodity charges is based on a fixed-fee per unit of volume delivered to the platform multiplied by the total volume of each product delivere! d.

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Petrochemical & Refined Products Services

The Company's Petrochemical & Refined Products Services business segment consists of propylene fractionation plant s, pipelines and related marketing activities; a butane isom! erization! facility and related pipeline system; octane enhancement and isobutylene production facilities; refined products pipelines, including its Products Pipeline System, and related marketing activities, and marine transportation and other services.

The Company's propylene fractionation and related activities consist of seven propylene fractionation plants (six located in Mont Belvieu, Texas and a seventh in Baton Rouge, Louisiana), propylene pipeline systems aggregating approximately 680 miles in length and related petrochemical marketing activities. This business includes an export facility and associated above-ground polymer grade propylene storage spheres located in Seabrook, Texas. Results of operations for its polymer grade propylene plants are dependent upon toll processing arrangements and petrochemical marketing activities. The toll processing arrangements include a base-processing fee per gallon (or other unit of measurement). Its petrochemical marketing activities include the purchase and fractionation of refinery grade propylene obtained in the open market and generate revenues from the sale and delivery of products obtained through propylene fractionation. The revenues from its propylene pipelines are based upon a transportation fee per unit of volume multiplied by the volume delivered to the customer. As part of its petrochemical marketing activities, it has refinery grade propylene purchase and polymer grade propylene sales agreements. Its butane isomerization business includes three butamer reactor units and eight associated deisobutanizer units located in Mont Belvieu, Texas, which comprise the commercial isomerization facility in the United States.

The Company's commercial isomerization units convert normal b! utane int! o mixed butane, which is fractionated into isobutane, isobutane and residual normal butane. The uses of isobutane are for the production of propylene oxide, isooctane, isobutylene and alky late for motor gasoline. These processing arrangements inclu! de a base! -processing fee per gallon (or other unit of measurement). Its isomerization business also generates revenues from the sale of natural gasoline created as a by-product of the isomerization process. The Company owns and operates an octane enhancement production facility located in Mont Belvieu, Texas, which produces isooctane, isobutylene and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). The products produced by this facility are used in reformulated motor gasoline blends. The isobutane feedstocks consumed in the production of these products are supplied by its isomerization units. The Company owns a facility located on the Houston Ship Channel, which produces high purity isobutylene (HPIB). The feedstock for this plant is produced by its octane enhancement facility located at its Mont Belvieu complex. HPIB is used in the production of alkylated phenols used as antioxidants, lube oil additives, butyl rubber and resins.

Refined products pipelines and related activities cons ist of its Products Pipeline System, equity method investment in Centennial Pipeline LLC (Centennial) and refined products marketing activities. The Products Pipeline System transports refined products, and petrochemicals, such as ethylene and propylene and NGLs, such as propane and normal butane. These refined products are produced by refineries and include gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation fuel, kerosene, distillates and heating oil. Refined products also include blend stocks, such as raffinate and naphtha. Blend stocks are used to produce gasoline or as a feedstock for certain petrochemicals. The Centennial Pipeline intersects its Products Pipeline System near Creal Springs, Illinois, and loops the Products Pipeline System between Beaumont, Texas and south Illinois. In a! ddition, ! it has refined products terminals located at Aberdeen, Mississippi and Boligee, Alabama adjacent to the Tombigbee River and on the Houston Ship Channel in Pasadena, Texas. Its related marketing acti vities generate revenues from the sale and delivery of refin! ed produc! ts obtained from third parties on the open market.

The Company's marine transportation business consists of tow boats and tank barges, which are used to transport refined products, crude oil, asphalt, condensate, heavy fuel oil, liquefied petroleum gas and other petroleum products along inland and intracoastal the United States waterways. Its marine transportation assets service refinery and storage terminal customers along the Mississippi River, the intracoastal waterway between Texas and Florida and the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway system. It owns a shipyard and repair facility located in Houma, Louisiana and marine fleeting facilities in Bourg, Louisiana and Channelview, Texas. Other services consist of the distribution of lubrication oils and specialty chemicals and the bulk transportation of fuels by truck, in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Kansas and the Rocky Mountain region of the United States.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matt DiLallo]

  You have probably never heard of 31 year old Scott Duncan. That's likely because he's not behind the latest tech wonder that everyone is talking about. That doesn't change the fact that he is worth $7 billion after inheriting a quarter of his father's share of boring energy pipeline business Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE: EPD  ) . That makes him the fourth youngest billionaire under 40 in America. In fact, if it wasn't for Facebook's (NASDAQ: FB  )  surging stock price, which is behind the wealth of Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, and Jan Koum, Scott just might have been the richest billionaire under 40 in America. It goes to show that being a tech geek isn't the only path to wealth these days.  

• [B! y Robert ! Rapier]

  But much of this newfound oil and gas production is taking place in regions that haven't been traditional producers of oil and gas. This has created strong demand for midstream providers to build the gathering systems, pipelines and storage tanks required to move oil and gas from fields in North Dakota and Pennsylvania to customers on the Gulf Coast and in the Northeast. This profited such midstream MLP giants as Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP), Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD), and Plains All American Pipeline (NYSE: PAA).

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/best-transportation-companies-to-own-in-right-now.html