Geographic Footprint Continues to Provide Growth Opportunities
The most important attribute of a successful midstream energy company is connecting large, long-life producing areas of natural gas, NGLs and crude oil with the major markets for these hydrocarbons. We believe Enterprise's large geographic footprint is one of the best in the natural gas and NGL industry. Our integrated system of assets includes approximately 36,000 miles of pipelines extending through 21 states and the Gulf of Mexico. We serve areas representing approximately 92 percent of the production and 88 percent of proved reserves in the lower 48 states. This includes prolific, low-cost producing areas for natural gas such as the Jonah/Pinedale, Piceance Basin, San Juan Basin and Barnett Shale areas, as well as the nearby Haynesville Shale. Offshore, we developed the Independence Hub platform and Trail pipeline project which currently transports more than 12 percent of the natural gas produced from the Gulf of Mexico. In total, our 20,000 miles of natural gas pipelines transport approximately 20 percent of natural gas production in the United States. We also own interests in two of the largest crude oil pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico, which is the largest source of domestically produced crude oil supplies in the United States.
On the consuming end, we serve the Texas and Louisiana natural gas and NGL markets, which are the largest in the United States. Our NGL pipelines access petrochemical production facilities that represent approximately 97 percent of U.S. ethylene capacity and refineries that represent approximately 90 percent of the motor gasoline refining capacity east of the Rockies.
Enterprise's Mid-America Pipeline system is the largest single supplier of propane to the Midwest market, and the partnership's Dixie Pipeline is the major supplier of propane to the Southeast market, which extends from Texas to South Carolina.
We believe Enterprise is well situated to continue developing energy infrastructure projects to serve domestic producers and consumers of hydrocarbons. Over the last three years, our largest expansion opportunities have been in the partnership's NGL business. In the coming years, however, we believe our most significant growth projects will shift to natural gas pipeline assets. This trend will help further diversify our sources of cash flow. Given the current state of the capital markets and economic recession, we are being very deliberate in prioritizing and allocating capital to our portfolio of growth projects under development.
In closing, we would like to recognize the efforts of our employees and would also like to thank our debt investors and equity partners for their continuing support, especially for the success of our recent offerings during these difficult financial markets. We are counting on your continued support as we start 2009.
Dan L. Duncan
Chairman
Michael A. Creel
President and Chief Executive Officer
