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Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) said Wednesday the U.S. government has removed license requirements for shipping ethane to China, clearing the way for deliveries to Chinese ports without additional approvals.
A letter revoking the previous license requirement, disclosed in an 8-K filing, came after the U.S. and China resolved a dispute last week around shipments of rare earth minerals and magnets to the U.S.
The U.S. Commerce Department sent letters last week to Enterprise Products (NYSE:EPD) and Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) telling the companies they could load ethane on vessels destined for China but could not unload the ethane in China without authorization.
About half of all U.S. exports of ethane, which is extracted from U.S. shale gas and primarily used as a petrochemical feedstock, are shipped to China, and an end to shipments would have hurt U.S. producers as well as Chinese petrochemical manufacturers.