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Item 1.
Overview
We are a publicly traded limited partnership with a diverse set of operations focused primarily in the United States Gulf Coast region. Our four primary business lines include:
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Terminalling and storage services for petroleum products and by-products;
Natural gas services;
Sulfur and sulfur-based products gathering, processing, marketing, manufacturing and distribution; and
Marine transportation services for petroleum products and by-products.
The petroleum products and by-products we collect, transport, store and market are produced primarily by major and independent oil and gas companies who often turn to third parties, such as us, for the transportation and disposition of these products. In addition to these major and independent oil and gas companies, our primary customers include independent refiners, large chemical companies, fertilizer manufacturers and other wholesale purchasers of these products. We generate the majority of our cash flow from fee-based contracts with these customers. Our location in the Gulf Coast region of the United States provides us strategic access to a major hub for petroleum refining, natural gas gathering and processing and support services for the exploration and production industry.
We were formed in 2002 by Martin Resource Management, a privately-held company whose initial predecessor was incorporated in 1951 as a supplier of products and services to drilling rig contractors. Since then, Martin Resource Management has expanded its operations through acquisitions and internal expansion initiatives as its management identified and capitalized on the needs of producers and purchasers of hydrocarbon products and by-products and other bulk liquids. Martin Resource Management owns an approximate 28.5% limited partnership interest in us. Furthermore, it owns and controls our general partner, which owns a 2.0% general partner interest and incentive distribution rights in us. Martin Resource Management directs our business operations through its ownership and control of our general partner. In addition, under the terms of an omnibus agreement with Martin Resource Management, the employees of Martin Resource Management are responsible for conducting our business and operating our assets. Martin Resource Management is also an important supplier and customer of ours.
The historical operation of our business segments by Martin Resource Management provides us with several decades of experience and a demonstrated track record of customer service across our operations. Our current lines of business have been developed and systematically integrated over this period of more than 60 years, including natural gas services (1950s); sulfur (1960s); marine transportation (late 1980s) and terminalling and storage (early 1990s). This development of a diversified and integrated set of assets and operations has produced a complementary portfolio of midstream services that facilitates the maintenance of long-term customer relationships and encourages the development of new customer relationships.
Primary Business Segments
Our primary business segments can be generally described as follows:
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Terminalling and Storage. We own or operate 27 marine shore based terminal facilities and 12 specialty terminal facilities located in the United States Gulf Coast region that provide storage, processing and handling services for producers and suppliers of petroleum products and by-products, lubricants and other liquids, including the refining of various grades and quantities of naphthenic lubricants and related products. Our facilities and resources provide us with the ability to handle various products that require specialized treatment, such as molten sulfur and asphalt. We also provide land rental to oil and gas companies along with storage and handling services for lubricants and fuel oil. We provide these terminalling and storage services on a fee basis primarily under long-term contracts. A significant portion of the contracts in this segment provide for minimum fee arrangements that are not based on the volumes handled.
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Natural Gas Services. Through our acquisitions of our subsidiaries, Prism Gas Systems I, L.P. (“Prism Gas”) and Woodlawn Pipeline Co., Inc. (“Woodlawn”), and acquisition of the Darco Gathering System, the Harrison Gathering System and the East Harrison Pipeline System, we have ownership interests in over 719 miles of gathering and transmission pipelines located in the natural gas producing regions of East Texas, Northwest Louisiana, the Texas Gulf Coast and offshore Texas and federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as a 320 MMcfd capacity natural gas processing plant located in East Texas. In addition to our natural gas gathering and processing business, we distribute natural gas liquids or, “NGLs”. We purchase NGLs primarily from natural gas processors. We store NGLs in our supply and storage facilities for wholesale deliveries to propane retailers, refineries and industrial NGL users in Texas and the Southeastern United States. We own an NGL pipeline which spans approximately 200 miles running from Kilgore to Beaumont, Texas. We own three NGL supply and storage facilities with an aggregate above-ground storage capacity of approximately 3,000 barrels and we lease approximately 2.6 million barrels of underground storage capacity for NGLs. We believe we have a natural gas processing competitive advantage in East Texas with the only full fractionation facilities serving this area. The recent acquisition of natural gas gathering and processing assets from Crosstex Energy, L.P. and Crosstex Energy, Inc. by our Waskom Gas Processing Company (a joint venture in which we participate with Center Point Energy Gas Processing Company, an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of CenterPoint Energy, Inc.) further strengthens our East Texas infrastructure.
Sulfur Services. We have developed an integrated system of transportation assets and facilities relating to sulfur services over the last 30 years. We process and distribute sulfur predominantly produced by oil refineries primarily located in the United States Gulf Coast region. We handle molten sulfur on contracts that are tied to sulfur indices and tend to provide stable margins. We process molten sulfur into prilled or pelletized sulfur on take or pay fee contracts at our facilities in Port of Stockton, California and Beaumont, Texas. The sulfur we process and handle is primarily used in the production of fertilizers and industrial chemicals. We own and operate six sulfur-based fertilizer production plants and one emulsified sulfur blending plant that manufacture primarily sulfur-based fertilizer products for wholesale distributors and industrial users. These plants are located in Illinois, Texas and Utah. In October 2007, we completed the construction of a sulfuric acid production plant in Plainview, Texas which processes molten sulfur into sulfuric acid. In March 2011, we completed the construction of an ammonium sulfate production plant in Plainview, Texas which takes sulfuric acid from our sulfuric acid plant and processes in into ammonium sulfate. Demand for our sulfur products exists in both the domestic and foreign markets, and we believe our asset base provides us with additional opportunities to handle increases in U.S. supply and access to foreign demand.