$1.4 Billion of New Assets Put to Work in 2008;
$1.9 Billion More to Come in 2009
Enterprise completed construction on new energy infrastructure assets and acquisitions totaling over $1.4 billion of investment in 2008. Our major organic growth projects completed during the year were primarily focused in the Rocky Mountains and included the Pioneer cryogenic natural gas processing plant in the Jonah/Pinedale area and the ExxonMobil central treating facility and White River natural gas hub in the Piceance Basin. These projects integrate with our natural gas pipeline assets in the area and our NGL system which extends to the major market areas on the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast.
We also completed three acquisitions in late 2008. The largest was a $125 million purchase of the Great Divide natural gas pipeline in the Piceance Basin. This pipeline, with 1 billion cubic feet per day ("Bcf/d") of capacity, integrates with our existing natural gas pipelines in the Piceance Basin and our 1.5 Bcf/d Meeker natural gas processing complex. The Great Divide pipeline extends our natural gas pipeline system further into the basin and brings additional volume to our downstream natural gas and NGL assets. The other noteworthy transaction was the $57 million investment to acquire the remaining ownership interests in the 1,400-mile Dixie NGL pipeline system. Through our ownership of 100 percent of this major FERC-regulated pipeline we believe we can make additional investments to provide our customers with more value-added services that should enhance the return on our investment in Dixie.
We expect to complete construction on $1.9 billion of organic growth projects in 2009. Three of these projects totaling $1.2 billion of investment were completed in the first quarter of 2009. The largest of these projects is the Sherman Extension, a 1.1 Bcf/d expansion of our Texas Intrastate natural gas pipeline system serving the Barnett Shale region. We also began commercial operations at the Meeker II natural gas processing plant in the Piceance Basin, which increases the capacity of our Meeker natural gas processing complex to 1.5 Bcf/d with the capability to extract up to 75,000 BPD of NGLs. The partnership began flowing crude oil on its 230,000 BPD Shenzi pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico, which integrates with and provides additional volumes to our downstream Cameron Highway and Poseidon crude oil pipeline systems. We expect to complete approximately $350 million of investment in expansions of our natural gas pipeline systems in the Piceance Basin and Barnett Shale during the second half of 2009.
