ETP Eyes New Crude Pipeline From Permian Basin To Nederland, Texas

NEW YORK, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Energy Transfer Partners LP is considering constructing a new crude oil pipeline from the Permian basin in Texas to Nederland, Texas, a company executive said on a fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday.

The company said it was "aggressively pursuing a larger project" without giving specific details.

"We're listening to our customers and we're going to build whatever capacity is warranted after those discussions," Thomas Long, chief financial officer said.

Shale producers have flocked to the Permian because of its prolific resources and relatively cheap production costs, boosting demand for takeaway capacity. Production in the Permian is expected to rise by 75,000 barrels per day to 3 million bpd in March.

Energy Transfer Partners also said it brought Phase 1 of its 100,000 bpd Permian Express 3 pipeline online in the fourth quarter, with additional volumes expected to come online later this year. The company said it is evaluating an additional 200,000 bpd expansion on the line that flows from the Permian to Nederland.

On its the 30-inch (76-cm) segment of its Bayou Bridge crude pipeline from Nederland to Lake Charles, Louisiana, the company said it transported an average of 145,000 bpd in the fourth quarter.

On the 24-inch segment of Bayou Bridge from Lake Charles to St. James, Louisiana, construction was now underway and commercial operations were expected to begin in the second half of 2018, Energy Transfer Partners said.

Energy Transfer Partners has suffered construction delays and court challenges to several projects, including the Bayou Bridge line, its Dakota Access crude pipeline and Rover natural gas line, which recently restarted construction in Ohio after regulators halted work following a drilling fluids spill.

The company said on Thursday Phase 1 of Rover pipeline, the biggest natural gas pipeline under construction in the United States, is now capable of transporting more than 1.7 billion cubic feet (bcf) per day of natural gas from Cadiz, Ohio, to Defiance, Ohio.

"Today, we are more than 99 percent complete with construction for the full project," a company executive said on the earnings call with analysts.

Full completion of the 3.25 bcf per day project is expected in the second quarter of this year.

Late on Wednesday, the company reported a net profit of $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter compared with a net loss of $336 million a year earlier.

Shares of Energy Transfer Partners surged nearly 6 percent to a high of $19.32 on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.

(Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in New York; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Tom Brown)