Buckeye Closes Purchase Of Stake In Corpus Christi Terminal Complex

(RTTNews) - Buckeye Partners L.P. (BPL) said Tuesday it has completed its $860 million purchase of an 80 percent interest in Buckeye Texas Partners LLC.

Buckeye Texas Partners LLC and its subsidiaries, which are owned jointly with Trafigura AG, will own and operate a vertically integrated system of midstream assets including a deep-water, high volume marine terminal located on the Corpus Christi Ship Channel, a condensate splitter and LPG storage complex in Corpus Christi and three crude oil and condensate gathering facilities in the Eagle Ford shale. Trafigura will be a key customer of these assets under 7- to 10-year minimum volume throughput, storage and tolling agreements.

"We are excited to incorporate this unique integrated system of assets into the Buckeye portfolio," said Clark Smith, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "This acquisition expands our geographic and product diversity with a premier position on the U.S. Gulf Coast and in the prolific Eagle Ford shale."

Buckeye expects the acquisition to be highly accretive to distributable cash flow per limited partner unit beginning in 2016 and to position Buckeye for acceleration of distribution growth.