The Midstream Business annual rankings of the sector’s largest natural gas and NGL processors for calendar year 2016 were a study in contrasts. In both cases familiar names continued to top the charts.

But for gas processing, all of them changed places—some moving up the league table, some moving lower. For most companies, reported volumes of throughput were slightly lower, so changes in ranking were largely a matter of holding to smaller decreases.

In contrast, the NGL production table was steady-on with the same companies in the same order. Gains and losses in liquids production were more variable than in gas processing, but in no case was the difference enough to appreciably shuffle the standings. And in both tables, the second set of companies, ranked six through 10, stayed in the same relative order, again with some closing or widening gaps.

Hart Energy has made every reasonable effort to ensure the veracity of this information. Neither Hart Energy, Midstream Business nor parties involved in gathering and presenting this material will be held liable for any errors or emissions. Energy Transfer Partners, a regular in the top 10 listings of these annual surveys, did not provide figures for 2016.

MarkWest rises
The top gas processor in the U.S., according to actual throughput as reported, was MarkWest Energy Partners, a part of Marathon Petroleum’s MPLX LP. Its throughput rose 5.7% to 5.6 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2016. That was enough to tip perennial top performer DCP Midstream to No. 2. DCP’s throughput was off 9% to 5.5 Bcf/d.

DCP Midstream LLC retained its perennial top spot in NGL production, however.

In releasing 2016 financials, MPLX noted several operational highlights that led to the increased gas production and NGL throughput. Most notably, processed volumes in the Marcellus and Utica of 4.3 Bcf/d were a 14% increase in 2016 vs. full-year 2015. At the same time, fractionated volumes in the Marcellus and Utica of 302,000 barrels per day (Mbbl/d), were a 29% increase for 2016 vs. full-year 2015.

Farther afield, processed volumes in the Southwest were 1.2 Bcf/d, a 14% increase for 2016 vs. full-year 2015.

Pointing the way to further increases in 2017, the company achieved full utilization during the fourth quarter at the 1.2 Bcf/d Sherwood complex, the largest facility of its kind in the Northeast. It also started its third fractionation train at the Hopedale complex in Ohio, to support growing NGL production from producers in the Marcellus and Utica shales.

Another completion was the Cornerstone Pipeline and supporting Hopedale connection. The completion of the Hopedale connection and the reversal of parent Marathon Petroleum’s Robinson Illinois Ohio (RIO) Pipeline in December 2016 allowed for the movement of natural gasoline from Hopedale to Marathon’s Robinson, Ill., refinery.

DCP’s shuffles
DCP has seen some shuffling of its own, which made consistent tracking of processing and production data a challenge. At the start of 2017, the 50:50 joint venture between Phillips 66 Co. and Spectra Energy Corp.—now a part of Enbridge Inc.—completed the transaction combining all of the assets and debt of DCP Partners with DCP Midstream under the latter name.

At the time of the closing, Wouter van Kempen, chairman, president and CEO of both DCP Midstream and DCP Midstream Partners, noted, “Our combined diversified portfolio provides highly accretive bolt-on expansion opportunities starting with the D-J [Denver-Julesburg] Basin, where we will build a new 200-MMcf/d [200 million cubic feet per day] processing plant that is expected to come online in late 2018 with an additional 200-MMcf/d plant in 2019. That will result in a 50% increase in D-J Basin capacity.”

DCP is also expanding its Sand Hills NGL Pipeline to its full 365-Mbbl/d capacity by the end of 2017, an increase of 30%.

Enterprise Products finished second in NGL production and third in gas processing. During 2016, the company completed and brought into commercial operation $2.2 billion of organic growth projects. That burgeoning growth included two new cryogenic natural gas processing plants in the Permian’s Delaware Basin and an ethane export marine terminal on the Houston Ship Channel.

Tripling down on the previous growth plan, Enterprise is making a serious run at the top spots for 2017 and beyond with $6.7 billion of growth capital projects under construction that are scheduled for completion through 2019. The largest project, a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) facility at its Mont Belvieu complex outside Houston, was expected to begin commercial operations in September.

Pascagoula’s back
In with the new did not mean out with the old. Repairs were completed to the firm’s Pascagoula, Miss., gas processing plant, which resumed operations in December 2016. The plant had been out of service since June 2016 due to fire damage. The total impact of the Pascagoula outage, in terms of higher operating expense, lost gross margin opportunity and capex, was about $31 million during the fourth quarter of 2016.

Currently, Pascagoula plant volumes have returned to pre-incident levels of about 500 MMcf/d.

The Williams Cos. Inc. ticked a notch higher in gas processing volumes. That was the net of several additions and subtractions in assets. Prior to the sale of all of its Canadian-based assets in September 2016, this segment included an off-gas processing plant at Canadian Natural Resources’ Horizon upgrader north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, that went into service in the first quarter of 2016. The segment also included a PDH growth project under development in Canada.

More recently, Williams sold some big U.S. assets to a Canadian company. Early in July, it collected $2.1 billion for its 88.46% ownership in the olefins plant and associated complex in Geismar, La., to Nova Chemicals. At the same time, Williams subsidiaries inked long-term supply and transportation agreements with Nova for feedstock to the steam cracker via Williams Partners’ ethane pipeline.

Western Gas volumes

Western Gas Partners (WES) reported slightly lower gas processing volumes. Total throughput attributable to WES for natural gas assets for the fourth quarter of 2016 averaged 4 Bcf/d, which was 1% below the prior quarter and 3% above the fourth quarter of 2015. For full-year 2016, total throughput attributable to WES for natural gas assets averaged 3.9 Bcf/d, which was 4.9% below the prior-year average.

Total throughput for crude/NGL assets for the fourth quarter of 2016 averaged 181 MMbbl/d, which was 2% below the prior quarter and 3% below the fourth quarter of 2015. For full-year 2016, total throughput for crude/NGL assets averaged 184 Mbbl/d, which was 1% below the prior-year average.

Looking ahead, the company said that volumes and producer activity continue to accelerate at its Ramsey plant in the Delaware Basin, where Train V has been brought online and Train II has been returned to service after an outage. Ramsey Train VI remains on schedule to begin service in the fourth quarter of 2017.

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