Energy Transfer LP (Energy Transfer) together with its subsidiaries, provides energy-related services in the United States.
The primary activities in which the company engaged, which are located in the United States, are as follows:
natural gas operations, including the following:
natural gas midstream and intrastate transportation and storage;
interstate natural gas transportation and storage; and
crude oil, NGL and refined products transportation, terminalling services and acquisition and...
Energy Transfer LP (Energy Transfer) together with its subsidiaries, provides energy-related services in the United States.
The primary activities in which the company engaged, which are located in the United States, are as follows:
natural gas operations, including the following:
natural gas midstream and intrastate transportation and storage;
interstate natural gas transportation and storage; and
crude oil, NGL and refined products transportation, terminalling services and acquisition and marketing activities, as well as NGL storage and fractionation services and LNG regasification.
In addition, the company owns investments in other businesses, including Sunoco LP and USAC, both of which are master limited partnerships.
The company expects its subsidiaries to utilize their resources, along with cash from their operations, to fund their announced growth capital expenditures and working capital needs; however, Energy Transfer may issue debt or equity securities from time to time as it deems prudent to provide liquidity for new capital projects of its subsidiaries or for other partnership purposes.
Significant Achievements in 2024
In July, Energy Transfer completed the acquisition of WTG Midstream, which owns approximately 6,000 miles of complementary gas gathering pipelines that extend Energy Transfer’s network into the Midland Basin. WTG Midstream also owns eight gas processing plants and two more under construction, one of which was placed in service in 2024.
In July, Energy Transfer and Sunoco LP formed ET-S Permian, a joint venture combining their respective crude oil and produced water gathering assets in the Permian Basin. ET-S Permian operates more than 5,000 miles of crude oil and water gathering pipelines and has crude oil storage capacity in excess of 11 million barrels.
Segments
Intrastate Transportation and Storage segment
Intrastate natural gas transportation pipelines receive natural gas from other mainline transportation pipelines, storage facilities, and gathering systems, and deliver the natural gas to industrial end-users, storage facilities, utilities, power generators, and other third-party pipelines. Through its intrastate transportation and storage segment, the company owns and operates (through wholly owned subsidiaries or through joint venture interests) approximately 12,200 miles of intrastate natural gas transportation pipelines with approximately 24 Bcf/d of transportation capacity, three natural gas storage facilities located in Texas, and two natural gas storage facilities located in Oklahoma.
Energy Transfer operates one of the largest intrastate pipeline systems in the United States, which provides energy logistics to major trading hubs and industrial consumption areas throughout the country. In Texas, the company’s intrastate transportation and storage segment provides transportation of natural gas to major markets from various prolific natural gas producing areas in Texas and Louisiana (Permian Basin and Barnett, Haynesville and Eagle Ford shales) through its Oasis Pipeline, ETC Katy Pipeline, Lobo Pipeline, RIGS and Pelico Pipeline as well as its two natural gas pipeline and storage systems: ET Fuel and HPL. In Oklahoma, the company operates Enable Oklahoma Intrastate Transmission, which delivers natural gas from various shale plays in the Anadarko and Arkoma basins.
The company also own a 70% interest in Red Bluff Express Pipeline, which owns a pipeline in the Delaware Basin, and 16% membership interests in Comanche Trail Pipeline and Trans-Pecos Pipeline, which own pipelines delivering natural gas from the Waha Hub to the United States/Mexico border.
The company also generate revenues and margin from the sale of natural gas to electric utilities, independent power plants, local distribution companies, industrial end-users and marketing companies. Generally, the company purchases natural gas from either the market (including purchases from its marketing operations) or from producers at the wellhead. To the extent the natural gas comes from producers, it is primarily purchased at a discount to a specified market price and typically resold to customers based on an index price. In addition, its intrastate transportation and storage segment generates revenues from fees charged for storing customers’ working natural gas in the company’s storage facilities and from managing natural gas for its own account.
Interstate Transportation and Storage segment
Interstate natural gas transportation pipelines receive natural gas from supply sources, including other transportation pipelines, storage facilities, and gathering systems, and deliver the natural gas to industrial end-users and other pipelines. Through its interstate transportation and storage segment, the company directly owns and operates approximately 20,090 miles of interstate natural gas pipelines with approximately 20.1 Bcf/d of transportation capacity, and another approximately 7,085 miles and 12.4 Bcf/d of transportation capacity through joint venture interests.
The company's vast interstate natural gas network spans the United States from Florida to California and Texas to Michigan, offering a comprehensive array of pipeline and storage services. The company's pipelines have the capability to transport natural gas from nearly all Lower 48 onshore and offshore supply basins to customers in the Gulf Coast, Southeast, Southwest, Midwest, and Northeast United States, as well as Canada. Through numerous interconnections with other pipelines, the company's interstate systems can access virtually any supply or market in the country. As discussed further herein, the interstate transportation and storage segment’s operations are regulated by the FERC, which has broad regulatory authority over the business and operations of interstate natural gas pipelines.
Lake Charles LNG, the company's wholly owned subsidiary, owns an LNG import terminal and regasification facility located on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast near Lake Charles, Louisiana. The import terminal has approximately 9.0 Bcf of above ground storage capacity, and the regasification facility has a send-out capacity of 1.8 Bcf/d. Lake Charles LNG derives all of its revenue from a series of long-term contracts with a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc (Shell).
Lake Charles LNG Export, the company’s wholly owned subsidiary, is developing a natural gas liquefaction project at the site of its Lake Charles LNG import terminal and regasification facility. The project will benefit from the infrastructure related to the existing regasification facility at the same site, including four LNG storage tanks, two deep water docks and other assets.
During 2022, Lake Charles LNG Export executed six LNG offtake agreements, for an aggregate of nearly 8 million tonnes per annum, including a 20-year LNG agreement with Shell NA LNG LLC. During 2024, Lake Charles LNG Export executed two additional 20-year LNG offtake agreements, including an LNG agreement with Chevron U.S.A. Inc (Chevron) for 2.0 million tonnes per annum. The agreements allow either party to terminate each agreement if Lake Charles LNG Export has not satisfied specified conditions by a specified date. The company is currently in discussions with several parties for potential long-term LNG offtake and potential equity investments in the project.
Midstream segment
The midstream industry consists of natural gas gathering, compression, treating, dehydration and processing, and is generally characterized by regional competition based on the proximity of gathering systems and processing plants to natural gas producing wells and the proximity of storage facilities to production areas and end-use markets. Gathering systems generally consist of a network of small diameter pipelines and, if necessary, compression systems, that collect natural gas from points near producing wells and transports it to larger pipelines for further transportation.
Through its midstream segment, the company owns and operates (through wholly owned subsidiaries or joint venture interests) natural gas gathering pipelines, natural gas processing plants, natural gas treating facilities and natural gas conditioning facilities with an aggregate processing capacity of approximately 12.9 Bcf/d. the company’s midstream segment focuses on the gathering, compression, treating, blending and processing of natural gas, and its operations are currently concentrated in major producing basins and shales in Texas, New Mexico, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, North Dakota and Wyoming. Many of its midstream assets are integrated with its intrastate transportation and storage assets as well as the company’s NGL assets.
The company’s midstream segment’s results are derived primarily from margins it earns from natural gas volumes that are gathered, transported, purchased and sold through its pipeline systems and the natural gas and NGL volumes processed at the company’s processing and treating facilities.
NGL and Refined Products Transportation and Services segment
The company’s NGL and refined products operations transport, store and execute acquisition and marketing activities utilizing a complementary network of pipelines, storage and blending facilities as well as strategic offtake locations that provide access to multiple markets.
The company’s NGL and refined products transportation and services segment includes: approximately 5,700 miles of NGL pipelines; the company’s Nederland Terminal and connecting pipelines which provide transportation of ethane, propane, butane and natural gasoline from its Mont Belvieu NGL Complex to its Nederland Terminal, where these products can be exported; the company’s Marcus Hook Terminal which includes fractionation, storage and exporting assets. This facility is connected to its Mariner East Pipeline System, which provides for the transportation of ethane and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) products from western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and eastern Ohio to its Marcus Hook Terminal where these component products can be exported, processed or locally distributed; NGL fractionation facilities at its Mont Belvieu NGL Complex with an aggregate capacity of 1.15 MMBbls/d; NGL storage facilities at the company’s Mont Belvieu NGL Complex with a working storage capacity of approximately 62 MMBbls; and other NGL storage assets with an aggregate storage capacity of approximately 35 MMBbls.
The company’s NGL pipelines primarily transport NGLs from the Permian Basin, the Barnett and Eagle Ford shales to Mont Belvieu, Texas. In the Northeast, its NGL pipelines transport from the Marcellus and Utica shales to its Marcus Hook Terminal, to customer facilities in Marysville, Michigan and to delivery points on the Canadian border.
In addition to providing storage capacity, the company's NGL terminalling services also support its liquids blending activities, including the use of its patented butane blending technology. Refined products operations provide transportation and terminalling services through the use of approximately 3,760 miles of refined products pipelines and 35 active refined products marketing terminals. The company's refined product marketing terminals are located primarily in the Northeast, Midwest, and Southwest United States, with approximately 8 MMBbls of refined products storage capacity. The company’s refined products operations utilize integrated pipeline and terminalling assets, as well as acquisition and marketing activities, to service refined products markets in several regions throughout the United States. The mix of products delivered through its refined products pipelines varies seasonally, with gasoline demand peaking during the summer months, and demand for heating oil and other distillate fuels peaking in the winter. The products transported in these pipelines include multiple grades of gasoline and middle distillates, such as heating oil, diesel, and jet fuel. Rates for shipments on these product pipelines are regulated by the FERC and other state regulatory agencies, as applicable.
Crude Oil Transportation and Services segment
The company’s crude oil operations provide transportation (via pipeline and trucking), terminalling as well as acquisition and marketing services to crude oil markets throughout the Southwest, Midwest and Northeast United States. Through its crude oil transportation and services segment, it owns and operates (through wholly owned subsidiaries or joint venture interests) approximately 17,950 miles of crude oil trunk and gathering pipelines in the Southwest, Midcontinent and Midwest United States. This segment includes equity ownership interests in seven crude oil pipeline systems: the Bakken Pipeline, Bayou Bridge Pipeline, White Cliffs Pipeline, Maurepas Pipeline, the Permian Express pipelines, Enable South Central Pipeline and the Wink to Webster Pipeline. The company’s crude oil terminalling services operates with an aggregate storage capacity of approximately 73 MMBbls, including approximately 30 MMBbls at its Gulf Coast terminal in Nederland, Texas, approximately 18.2 MMBbls at its Gulf Coast terminal on the Houston Ship Channel and approximately 9.5 MMBbls at its Cushing Terminal in Cushing, Oklahoma, among others. The company’s crude oil acquisition and marketing activities utilize its pipeline and terminal assets, its proprietary fleet of crude oil tractor trailers and truck unloading facilities, as well as third-party assets to service crude oil markets principally in the Midcontinent United States.
This segment also includes the ET-S Permian joint venture. The joint venture was formed in 2024, with Energy Transfer and Sunoco LP combining their respective crude oil and produced water gathering assets in the Permian Basin. The ET-S Permian joint venture includes more than 5,000 miles of crude oil and water gathering pipelines with crude oil storage capacity in excess of 11 MMBbls. Energy Transfer holds a 67.5% interest in the joint venture, with Sunoco LP holding the remaining 32.5%.
The company’s crude oil acquisition and marketing activities include the gathering, purchasing, marketing and selling of crude oil. Specifically, the crude oil acquisition and marketing activities include:
purchasing crude oil at both the wellhead from producers and in bulk from aggregators at major pipeline interconnections and trading locations;
storing inventory during contango market conditions (when the price of crude oil for future delivery is higher than current prices);
buying and selling crude oil of different grades at different locations in order to maximize value;
transporting crude oil using its pipelines, terminals and trucks or, when necessary or cost effective, pipelines, terminals or trucks owned and operated by third parties; and
marketing crude oil to major integrated oil companies, independent refiners and resellers through various types of sale and exchange transactions.
Investment in Sunoco LP
Sunoco LP is primarily engaged in energy infrastructure and distribution of motor fuels in over 40 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, Europe and Mexico. Sunoco LP’s midstream operations include an extensive network of over 14,000 miles of pipeline and over 100 terminals.
Sunoco LP’s fuel distribution operations serve approximately 7,400 Sunoco and partner branded locations and additional independent dealers and commercial customers. Through its fuel distribution operations, Sunoco LP is a distributor of motor fuels and other petroleum products which it supplies to third-party dealers and distributors, to independent operators of commission agent locations, other commercial consumers of motor fuel and to the company’s retail locations. Sunoco LP is also the exclusive wholesale supplier of the Sunoco LP and EcoMaxx-branded motor fuels, supplying an extensive distribution network of approximately 5,619 company and third-party operated locations throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. In addition, Sunoco LP receives lease income from real estate that it leases or subleases.
Investment in USAC
USAC focuses its compression services in unconventional resource plays throughout the United States, including the Utica, Marcellus, Permian, Denver-Julesburg, Eagle Ford, Mississippi Lime, Granite Wash, Woodford, Barnett and Haynesville. USAC provides compression services to its customers primarily in connection with infrastructure applications, including both allowing for the processing and transportation of natural gas through the domestic pipeline system and enhancing crude oil production through artificial lift processes. As such, USAC’s compression services play a critical role in the production, processing and transportation of both natural gas and crude oil. As of December 31, 2024, USAC had 3.9 million horsepower in its fleet.
USAC operates a fleet of compression units, with an average age of approximately 12 years and a useful life that could potentially extend decades when properly maintained. USAC’s standard new-build compression units are generally configured for multiple compression stages allowing USAC to operate its units across a broad range of operating conditions. As part of USAC’s services, it engineers, designs, operates, services and repairs its compression units and maintains related support inventory and equipment.
USAC provides compression services to its customers under fixed-fee contracts with initial contract terms typically between six months to five years, depending on the application and location of the compression unit. USAC typically continues to provide compression services at a specific location beyond the initial contract term, either through contract renewal or on a month-to-month or longer basis. USAC primarily enters into fixed-fee contracts whereby its customers are required to pay a monthly fee even during periods of limited or disrupted throughput, which enhances the stability and predictability of its cash flows. USAC bills most of its customers in advance of the service date and also typically utilizes annual inflation adjustments in its term contracts. USAC is not directly exposed to commodity price risk because it does not take title to the natural gas or crude oil involved in its services and because the natural gas used as fuel by its compression units is supplied by its customers without cost to USAC.
USAC’s assets and operations are all located and conducted in the United States.
All Other segment
The company’s All Other segment includes:
The company’s gas marketing activities, which optimize basis pricing differentials by purchasing and transporting natural gas, primarily on company owned pipelines, and selling that gas primarily to industrial end-users or to other marketers;
The company’s commodity marketing company, which focuses primarily on wholesale power trading activities;
The company’s natural gas compression equipment business, which has operations in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas;
The company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Dual Drive Technologies, Ltd., which provides compression services to customers engaged in the transportation of natural gas, including its other segments; and
subsidiaries involved in the management of coal and natural resources properties and the related collection of royalties. The company also earns revenues from other land management activities, such as selling standing timber, leasing coal-related infrastructure facilities, and collecting oil and gas royalties. These operations also include end-user coal handling facilities.
Customers
In addition to oil and gas producers, the Partnership’s counterparties consist of a diverse portfolio of customers across the energy industry, including petrochemical companies, commercial and industrial end-users, municipalities, gas and electric utilities, midstream companies and independent power generators. The company’s overall exposure may be affected positively or negatively by macroeconomic or regulatory changes that impact its counterparties to one extent or another.
Regulation
The company also holds certain natural gas storage facilities that are subject to the FERC’s regulatory oversight under the NGA.
The company’s intrastate natural gas operations are also subject to regulation by various agencies in Texas, principally the Texas Railroad Commission (TRRC). The company’s intrastate pipeline and storage operations in Texas are also subject to the Texas Utilities Code, as implemented by the TRRC.
In addition, the rates, terms and conditions of service for shipments of NGLs on the company’s pipelines are subject to regulation by the FERC under the Interstate Commerce Act (ICA) and the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (the EPAct of 1992) if the NGLs are transported in interstate or foreign commerce whether by its pipelines or other means of transportation.
To the extent that the company enters into transportation contracts with natural gas pipelines that are subject to United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulation, it is subject to FERC requirements related to the use of such capacity.
In addition, as noted above, the rates, terms, and conditions for shipments of crude oil, NGLs, or products on the company's pipelines could be subject to regulation by the FERC under the ICA and the EPAct of 1992 if the crude oil, NGLs, or products are transported in interstate or foreign commerce, whether by the company's pipelines or other means of transportation.
The company's pipeline operations are subject to regulation by the DOT, through PHMSA, pursuant to the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968, as amended (NGPSA), with respect to natural gas, and the Hazardous Liquids Pipeline Safety Act of 1979, as amended (HLPSA), with respect to crude oil, NGLs, and condensates. The HLPSA and NGPSA have been amended by the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011 (2011 Pipeline Safety Act) and the Protecting its Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety Act of 2016.
The company also generates both hazardous and nonhazardous wastes that are subject to requirements of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, as amended, (RCRA) and comparable state statutes.
The company’s operations are subject to the federal Clean Air Act, as amended, and comparable state laws and regulations. The company is subject to the requirements of the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and comparable state laws that regulate the protection of the health and safety of workers.
The company’s projects that are subject to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) can include pipeline construction and pipeline integrity projects that involve federal lands or require approvals by federal agencies.
History
The company was founded in 1996. The company was incorporated in 2005. The company was formerly known as Energy Transfer Equity, L.P. and changed its name to Energy Transfer LP in October 2018.
