Fuel shipper Enterprise Products Partners said the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security intends to deny its request to send three boatloads of ethane to China from its terminal on the Houston Ship Channel, an escalation of trade tensions between the world’s largest economies. Ethane and propane—important ingredients in making plastic—have become major U.S. exports in recent years, flowing from oil wells in West Texas and Appalachian gas fields alike. China has built petrochemical facilities to use the shale-era’s abundance of both feedstocks, but now Washington has decided that ethane shipments could bolster Beijing’s military, Enterprise said.