DEP Duncan Energy Partners L.P.

Enterprise Products Partners LP's (EPD) first-quarter profit soared as its pipeline moved more petroleum products.

Enterprise said it has $5 billion worth of expansion projects slated for upcoming years as it seeks to take advantage of growing U.S. onshore oil and gas production. The company is adding a fifth fractionation unit at its natural gas liquids processing plant in Mont Belvieu, Texas, and plans to expand pipeline capacity in key oil and gas producing fields.

"As we continue to move forward in time, we keep seeing more and more opportunities," Enterprise Chief Operating Officer Jim Teague said during a conference call with investors. "So that (expansion project) number will continue to build."

One of its more closely watched projects is a joint venture with Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) to build a pipeline connecting the oil storage hub Cushing, Okla., to the U.S. refining center of Houston, Texas. The pipeline, expected to open in December 2012, would help alleviate an oil supply glut that has been distorting the price of U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate.

Enterprise reported a profit of $420.7 million, or 49 cents a unit, up from $69.9 million, or 33 cents a unit, a year earlier, as the number of units outstanding more than quadrupled. Revenue jumped 19% to $10.18 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most recently forecast a profit of 44 cents on $8.86 billion in revenue.

Operating margin narrowed to 6.1% from 6.5%.

Enterprise's recent results improved partly thanks to its $3.3 billion merger with Teppco Partners LP in late 2009, which created one of the U.S.'s largest pipeline companies. Since the deal, the company has increased its focus on developing onshore pipeline projects serving shale gas fields.

Meanwhile, Enterprise's sister company Duncan Energy Partners LP (DEP) reported a 9% decline in earnings as an insurance deductible weighed on the bottom line.

Enterprise is in the midst of a planned $2.5 billion acquisition of Duncan, which the suitor's parent company had spun off in 2006 as a separate entity holding interest in certain of Enterprise's mid-stream assets. The two are entwined in a structurally complex relationship--Enterprise now owns Duncan's general partner and about 58% of its common units.

Duncan, meanwhile, posted a profit of $19.3 million, or 33 cents a unit, down from $21.2 million, or 37 cents a unit, a year earlier. The partnership's share of an insurance deductible related to a February natural-gas liquids release cut the latest result by 6 cents. Revenue slid 2.5% to $283.2 million.

Wall Street expected a 38-cent profit on $285 million in revenue.

Common units of Enterprise and Duncan traded Monday at $41.80 and $41.67, respectively.

-By Ben Lefebvre, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9201; ben.lefebvre@dowjones.com; Matt Jarzemsky, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2240; matthew.jarzemsky@dowjones.com

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