Top five US gas processors eye additional expansions

J. STELL, Contributing Editor According to recent industry analyses, natural gas processing capacity in the US climbed by 5.6 billion cubic feet per day (Bcfd) during 2013, and is set to increase by an additional 2.8 Bcfd in 2014. Also, approximately 1.4 million barrels per day (MMbpd) of fractionation capacity will come online between 2012 and 2015. In 2013, estimated US natural gas liquids (NGL) production reached nearly 2.8 MMbpd and is expected to rise to 3.34 MMbpd in 2014; however, this volume could be smaller, depending on the continuing trend of ethane rejection. While there are approximately 500 gas processing plants in the US, a group of 10 processing companies, many of which ow