Underground Storage

Choctaw Hub

BLM’s largest salt dome storage facilities are located approximately fifteen miles south of Baton Rouge at our Choctaw Hub near Plaquemine, Louisiana. We have over 21 million barrels of available storage capacity across six active caverns at the Choctaw Hub, and additional caverns are being utilized for brine supply services and will be available for hydrocarbon storage upon completion of leaching activities. We currently offer storage services for ethylene, ethane, propylene and ethane-propane (E/P) mix at the Choctaw Hub, and we have the ability to modify the existing product storage configuration to meet market demand.

Our primary storage services at the Choctaw Hub include:

  • Ethylene Storage: With 1.75 billion pounds of ethylene storage capacity and product dehydration units capable of drying approximately 360,000 pounds per hour, the Choctaw Hub is critical, not only for the Mississippi River Corridor, but also for the entire U.S. Gulf Coast ethylene market. Our connectivity with all of the major ethylene pipeline systems in Louisiana positions our Choctaw Hub as one of the region’s premier exchange points for ethylene producers and consumers.
  • Feedstock Storage: BLM currently has one well in E/P storage and two wells in ethane storage service at the Choctaw Hub. The ethane wells provide connectivity to a third party feedstock pipeline that starts in Mont Belvieu, Texas and ends along the Mississippi River Corridor, providing supply to a region that historically has experienced ethane shortages. Our ethane storage assets help local consumers mitigate supply risk through their storage positions. Collectively, these ethane and E/P wells provide important feedstock supply capabilities for the major olefin producers in Louisiana. Further, the Choctaw Hub offers a substantial amount of capacity available for future storage of other feedstocks and liquefied petroleum gas products
  • Natural Gas Storage: Natural gas storage is provided by our affiliated company, Boardwalk Storage Company, LLC. For more information about Boardwalk Storage Company, please click here.
  • Sulphur Hub

    At our Sulphur Hub near Lake Charles, Louisiana, we own and operate five active storage caverns, which are currently in ethylene, ethane and propane service.

    • Ethylene Storage: Our ethylene cavern has total capacity of 370 million pounds and is connected to local ethylene consumers, producers and ethylene pipelines including BPP’s Evangeline Pipeline.
    • Ethane Storage: Our ethane caverns have a total capacity of more than 4.8 million barrels. The ethane storage caverns serve local ethane consumers and are connected to third-party pipelines that transport ethane from Texas to the Mississippi River corridor.
    • Propane Storage: Our propane storage, with approximately 500,000 barrels of existing capacity, provides storage service to propane producers and consumers in the Lake Charles petrochemical market.