CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Forbes Magazine has crunched the numbers and says that over the last decade, the Port of Corpus Christi has been the fastest growing major port in the United States — by a lot.
The article states that the Corpus Christi port has grown by more than 238 percent since 2013 – nearly double the next entry on the list.
Port of Corpus Christi CEO Kent Britton points to a combination of factors for that kind of growth, saying the biggest is the increased production of oil and gas coming out of West Texas.
Behind that, a change in federal law.
“In 2015, the federal government lifted a ban on crude oil that had been in place since the 1970s,” he said. “That freed up that oil to go other places, besides just here in the U.S.”
Britton also points to the project to widen and deepen the Corpus Christi Ship Channel, saying it has allowed midstream companies to point their pipelines toward the area when they could have gone somewhere else.
By sending U.S. goods to other parts of the world, the port has a trade surplus of more than $61 billion — money that comes back here.
The port's ongoing success also is a plus for the city of Corpus Christi.
Asst. city manager Heather Hurlbert told 3NEWS that because of the port's economic impact, the city is one of the port’s biggest cheerleaders.
“How exciting is it that Corpus Christi is mentioned numerous times in that Forbes article, bringing awareness to the city," Hurlbert said. “If you were to combine all of those businesses that are in support of, or affected by the port, it would probably be our largest employer.”
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