Enterprise Exits Texas Offshore Oil Port and Pipeline Project
5:00p ET April 21, 2009 (Business Wire)
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD) announced today that, effective April 16, 2009, its affiliate, Enterprise Offshore Port System, LLC, has elected to dissociate, or exit from, the Texas Offshore Port System partnership ("TOPS") and forfeit its investment and its one-third ownership interest in the partnership. As a result, Enterprise expects to record a non-cash charge of approximately $34 million against its earnings for the second quarter of 2009. The decision to dissociate from TOPS was in connection with a disagreement with one of its partners, an affiliate of Oiltanking Holdings America, Inc.

TEPPCO O/S Port System, LLC, an affiliate of TEPPCO Partners, L.P. (NYSE:TPP) has also elected to dissociate from TOPS effective April 16, 2009.

In August 2008, affiliates of Enterprise TEPPCO and Oiltanking Holding Americas, Inc. formed a joint venture to design, construct, own and operate a new Texas offshore crude oil port and pipeline system to facilitate delivery of waterborne crude oil to refining centers along the upper Texas Gulf Coast. The TOPS project includes an offshore port, two onshore storage facilities with approximately 5.1 million barrels of total crude oil storage capacity, and an associated 160-mile pipeline system with the capacity to deliver up to 1.8 million barrels per day of crude oil. The total cost of the project had been estimated at $1.8 billion.