Enbridge Energy Partners (EEP) recently released its guidance for 2012. The partnership continues to make good progress on its growth initiatives and expects the underlying fundamentals to support its future plans.
Enbridge Energy expects adjusted net income in the range of $510 million and $550 million for fiscal 2012, while adjusted operating income and depreciation are forecasted to lie in the band of $870-$910 million and $320-$340 million, respectively.
For 2012, Enbridge Energy has projected capital expenditures of approximately $2.1 billion and core maintenance capital expenditures of around $115 million.
The growth plans revealed by the partnership in the Liquids segment includes expansion of Line 5 to allow access to mainline market for eastern flows, continuous investment in Bakken regional infrastructure, which consists of Bakken Pipeline Expansion Program, Bakken Access Program and Berthold Rail Program. Finally, further expansion of crude oil storage terminals at Cushing will also commence in 2012.
In the natural gas segment, Enbridge Energy plans to construct a new 150 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d) natural gas processing plant at Ajax located in the Granite Wash region, make investments in the Texas Express NGL pipeline project, as well as develop Texas South Haynesville shale.
Enbridge Inc.‘s (ENB), the general partner of Enbridge Energy Partners,efforts to enter the Gulf Coast will potentially unlock significant opportunities for the partnership and will also augment its production and revenue with respect to both its Liquids and Natural Gas processing businesses.
The new projects are likely to boost the capacity utilization at the partnership’s crude oil mainline system as well as facilitate further expansion in its pipeline system in the near future.
Enbridge Energy also declared a cash distribution of 53.25 cents per unit to be paid on February 14, 2012 to unitholders of record as of February 7, 2012.
Enbridge Energy holds a Zacks #3 Rank, which is equivalent to a Hold rating for a period of one to three months. For the long term, we maintain a Neutral recommendation.
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Zacks Investment Research
