Our analysis shows that 8 companies have announced plans to build condensate splitters in addition to the already operating 75 Mb/d Total/BASF unit at Port Arthur, TX. Some of these plans are further along than others – notably the Kinder Morgan 100 Mb/d splitter being built in the Houston Ship Channel – delayed earlier this year – but still due online in November 2014 with the first 50 Mb/d of production fully contracted to BP. Similarly on their way to completion are splitters (topping units) announced by Marathon at their OH and KY refineries. Magellan, Castleton and Martin Midstream have announced plans for three splitters at Corpus Christi on the Gulf Coast south of the Eagle Ford.
Thank you for that info, so some at refineries, others not.
It seems to me this ruling give a larger market for the splitters, it does not take away their feedstock. The ruling specified distillation tower, IIRC. Field stabilization units do not meet that criteria.
The move, which came in private classification orders issued by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, effectively confirms that hydrocarbon known as condensate qualifies as a petroleum product once it has been processed in a distillation tower
...The decision falls far short of what oil producers and some of their allies in Congress have been urging — including a wholesale repeal of the trade limits on crude. But it could provide a new avenue for the ultra-light condensate that flows along with crude out of many Texas wells tapping the Eagle Ford Shale and effectively delay a broader, deeper debate about broader crude exports.
Because the classification ruling is limited to condensate that has been run through a distillation tower, it does not apply more broadly to unprocessed condensate that has just flowed out of oil and gas wells.
Distillation involves using heat and condensation to separate hydrocarbons into their different streams and generally goes beyond simply stabilizing condensate for pipeline transport by boiling off butane and other light, volatile gases.