Matagorda County TX — Eagle Ford Shale News

Tres Palacios Pipeline Header and Storage

Inergy, LP has completed a 20-mile, 24-inch pipeline header extension that will allow natural gas to flow from Kinder Morgan's Houston Central gas processing plant in Colorado County to the Tres Palacios storage hub in Matagorda County.

The Tres Palacios Header crosses ten interstate & intrastate pipelines and connects the Tres Palacios storage hub to the Houston Central processing plant.

Tres Palacios gas storage facility is located in Matagorda County, TX, and includes 38.4 bcf/d of working gas storage capacity
Houston Central plant has capacity to process 700 mmcfd of gas and fractionation capacity of 22,000 b/d. The plant is being expanded to process an additional 400-800 mmcfd of rich gas from the Eagle Ford. The facility was formerly known as the Copano Houston Central Plant

“Beyond providing Eagle Ford Shale producers with significant new market options, we believe our new Houston Central interconnection will increase liquidity at the Tres Palacios hub point for marketers to access supply.”

— Bruce Page, VP

This is one of several midstream developments that will enhance the value of natural gas and NGLs being produced in the Eagle Ford.

Tenaris is planning its first US pipe mill in Bay City, TX. The company's North American headquarters is located in Houston and the Eagle Ford's proximity makes the decision even easier. The new facility will have the ability to produce up to 600,000 tons of high quality seemless steel pipe each year. The plant is expected to be in operation in 2016.

“Our new facility will complement our integrated global manufacturing network and work closely with our existing North American operations to further strengthen domestic production,” Paolo Rocca, Chairman and CEO said.

A Texas Enterprise Fund grant in the amount of $6 million and tax abatement offers from local authorities were used to provide lure the Tenaris plant to Texas.

“This announcement is only possible thanks to the hard work of state and local officials, as well as the area business community, which always plays a major role in decisions like this,” Texas Governor Rick Perry said.

The plant will employ as many as 600 people who will make more than $65,000 per year on average. Census.gov reports the median household income from 2007-2011 was just a little more than $50,000, so these jobs beat the average by almost 30%. This won't be directly attributed to the South Texas shale boom, but I think you can just add this to the already booming Eagle Ford job count.

Read more from the press release at tenaris.com