Permian Leads U.S. Gas-Processing Maintenance in Second Quarter

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Demand for natural gas as a power-generation resource and as a component in natural gas liquids (NGL) is pushing U.S. gas-processing companies to keep their facilities in the best possible condition. Industrial Info is tracking more than 100 maintenance-related projects at U.S. gas-processing plants that are set to begin in the second quarter, with nearly half attributed to just three companies: Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET) (Dallas, Texas), Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:MPC) (Findlay, Ohio) and Targa Resources Corporation (NYSE:TRGP) (Houston, Texas).

Click on the image at right for a graph detailing the top 10 parent companies for maintenance-related projects at U.S. gas-processing plants that are set to begin from April through June, by total investment value.

Energy Transfer leads all other gas-processing companies in second-quarter maintenance kickoffs, a significant number of which are in Texas' Permian Basin. Tom Long, the co-chief executive officer of Energy Transfer, said in a recent quarterly earnings-related conference call that his company also expects to spend $1.2 billion on processing expansions, treating upgrades, compression additions and well connects in the Permian in 2025. "Looking at our Permian processing expansions in 2024, we completed the 50 million-cubic-feet-per-day upgrades to our Orla East and Grey Wolf processing plants," he added.

These two Permian plants are among those preparing for maintenance kickoffs in the coming months: The 80 million-standard-cubic-foot-per-day Orla East plant in Orla and the 230 million-standard-cubic-foot-per-day Grey Wolf plant in Kermit are expecting turnarounds of seven and five days, respectively. Energy Transfer also expects to perform turnarounds at the 160 million-standard-cubic-foot-per-day Keystone plant in Kermit for 10 days, and the 200 million-standard-cubic-foot-per-day Unit 1 at the Arrowhead plant in Coyanosa for five to seven days.

Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Oil & Gas Project Database can read detailed reports on the Orla, Grey Wolf, Keystone and Arrowhead projects.

The New Mexico portion of the Permian, while much smaller than the Texas portion, is home to several gas-processing maintenance projects, including three from Targa:

• Train 5 at the Red Hills complex in Jal, which has a 230 million-standard-cubic-foot-per-day gas-processing capacity and a 13,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) NGL production capacity; see project report
• the Monument plant in Lea County, which has a 90 million-standard-cubic-foot-per-day gas-processing capacity; see project report
• the Eunice plant in Lea County, which has a 110 million-standard-cubic-foot-per-day gas-processing capacity; see project report

All three plants are in the Permian's Delaware Basin, which Matt Meloy, the chief executive officer of Targa, said in a recent earnings call helped to drive the company's outperformance in produced volumes in 2024: "We expect to continue to benefit from similar trends in 2025. We currently estimate that our Permian [gathering and processing] volume growth will be more second-half weighted. This growth, along with several large commercial wins that began adding volumes late 2025 and into 2026, positions us to drive even stronger volume growth in 2026."

MarkWest Energy Partners, a subsidiary of Marathon Petroleum, trails only Energy Transfer in its total investment in second-quarter maintenance kickoffs, led by two plants in West Virginia's portion of the Marcellus Shale: the Majorsville complex in Dallas, West Virginia, which is performing scheduled inspections and repairs to trains 1 and 2, each of which has a 120 million-standard-cubic-foot-per-day gas-processing capacity and a 14,222-BBL/d NGL production capacity; and the Sherwood complex in West Union, West Virginia, which is performing scheduled inspections and repairs to trains 5 and 6, each of which has a 200 million-standard-cubic-foot-per-day gas-processing capacity and a 12,000-BBL/d NGL production capacity.

Rick Hessling, the chief commercial officer of Marathon Petroleum, noted in a recent earnings call that demand growth for processed gas "is more robust than we have seen in a while," driven in part by "a significant uplift in gas export demand," especially from Latin America and Europe. Subscribers can read detailed project reports for the turnarounds on Majorsville's Train 1 and Train 2, and Sherwood's Train 5 and Train 6.

Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Project and Plant databases can click here for a full list of detailed reports for projects mentioned in this article, and click here for a full list of related plant profiles.

Subscribers can click here for a full list of detailed reports for maintenance-related projects at U.S. gas-processing plants that are set to begin in the second quarter.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).