(Source: Business Wire)Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE: EPD) ("Enterprise") and TEPPCO Partners, L.P. ("TEPPCO") today announced that the merger of the two partnerships has been completed. The merger agreement was previously approved by TEPPCO unitholders at a special meeting held October 23, 2009 in Houston. With an enterprise value of approximately $30 billion, 48,000 miles of pipelines and market capitalization of $18 billion, Enterprise is now the nation's largest publicly traded partnership.

"This strategic combination opens up new avenues of growth for Enterprise by diversifying our asset portfolio, strengthening our presence in key geographic regions, and offering new service options, which will give us the opportunity to extend our successful integrated energy value chain business model," said Enterprise President and Chief Executive Officer Michael A. Creel. "In addition to Enterprise's well-established infrastructure that serves producers and consumers of natural gas, natural gas liquids, crude oil and petrochemicals, we now offer access to one of the nation's largest transportation and storage networks for refined products and crude oil."

With the completion of the merger TEPPCO has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Enterprise. The common units of Enterprise will continue to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol EPD. TEPPCO's units, which had been trading on the NYSE under the ticker symbol TPP, will be delisted and no longer publicly traded. Enterprise expects that the combined administrative services agreement the two partnerships have been operating under since 2005 will help facilitate a smooth transition for customers and investors.

As previously announced, Enterprise is offering to exchange TEPPCO senior and subordinated notes validly tendered for exchange, and not validly withdrawn, prior to their expiration date for Enterprise notes. Enterprise's obligation to complete the exchange offers and consent solicitations are conditioned upon, among other things, completion of the proposed merger of TEPPCO with a wholly owned subsidiary of Enterprise and receipt of valid consents sufficient to effect all of the proposed amendments to the TEPPCO indentures. The merger and related transactions were not conditioned upon the commencement or completion of the exchange offers or consent solicitations. As of 9 a.m. New York City time today (the expiration date) approximately $1.95 billion of the $2 billion aggregate principal amount of TEPPCO notes had been tendered for exchange.