April 3 (Reuters) - Enterprise Products Partners ( EPD )

will build a natural gas processing plant in Texas to expand its

operations in the Permian Basin, the U.S. energy firm said on

Wednesday.

The facility, Mentone West 2, at Texas' Loving County will

have the capacity to process more than 300 million cubic feet

per day (cfpd) of natural gas and to extract in excess of 40,000

barrels per day (bpd) of natural gas liquids (NGL).

"The Permian Basin is expected to account for more than

90% of domestic NGL production by the end of the decade as

producers and oilfield service companies continue to push the

envelope and develop new and more efficient techniques in one of

the world's most prolific energy basins," said AJ Teague, co-CEO

of Enterprise's general partner.

The plant is expected to begin service in the second quarter

of 2026.

Enterprise said it has started service on its Mentone 3

natural gas processing plant, which is also capable of

processing over 300 million cfpd of natural gas and extracting

more than 40,000 bpd of NGLs.

Construction of its Mentone West 1 plant, formerly known as

Mentone 4, is also on schedule and projected to begin service in

the second half of 2025.

(Reporting by Sourasis Bose in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj

Kalluvila)