Strong competitive position and diverse business mix; Sizable proportion of fee-based revenues; and Improvement in credit-protection measures. Aggressive growth strategy; Distributes a majority of free cash flow to unitholders; and Volatile natural gas processing margins. Standard&Poor's Ratings Services bases its ratings on Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (EPD) and its operating subsidiary Enterprise Products Operating LLC on the companies' "strong" business risk profiles and "significant" financial risk profiles (as our criteria define the terms). Key credit strengths include EPD's operating scale, business-line diversity, and high proportion of fee-based revenues. Partially offsetting these strengths are EPD's aggressive growth strategy, commodity price exposure, significant financial leverage, and status as a master limited partnership (MLP). As an MLP, EPD distributes the majority
