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Port looking to partner with Carlyle Investment Group for Harbor Island export terminal

Port Board Chairman Charlie Zahn said it was hard to find the money to get the infrastructure ready for the oil that's coming.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A new company may be building a deepwater oil export terminal at Harbor Island, and it could mean an extra $400 million in costs for the Port of Corpus Christi's ongoing dredging and widening project in the main ship channel.

The company would help Corpus Christi solidify its position as the largest oil exporting port in the U.S.

The Carlyle Investment Group will deliver a memorandum of understanding to Port commissioners at Tuesday's meeting to start the partnership. If approved, the company could contribute as much as $400 million to the Port Improvement Project to widen the ship channel to 54 feet.

The extra money would be used to deepen the ship channel to 75 feet to Harbor Island to allow for Very Large Crude Carriers, or VLCCs, to fill completely without having to be topped off offshore.

Port Board Chairman Charlie Zahn said it was hard to find the money to get the infrastructure ready for the oil that's coming.

"The cost to move it or provide that infrastructure far exceeded what we at the Port of Corpus Christi had the ability to do ourselves, and so we started looking for a financial partner, and we found Carlyle and they're one of the best in the world," Zahn said. "And so we're working with them to be our financial partner and put together the team that will operate that oil export terminal for Harbor Island."

While the Port of Corpus Christi is the number one oil exporter, we are the fourth busiest port in the U.S. Zahn said the Port of Corpus Christi is rapidly becoming the third busiest port in the nation overall, behind Houston.

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