CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — It's a sign that the demand for oil exports out of the US is on the rise and the Port of Corpus Christi is playing a crucial role in that process.
The pipelines that feed crude oil from West Texas to the Port of Corpus Christi are said to be almost maxed out according to a report from Bloomberg.com, but is it bottlenecked?
The Port of Corpus Christi says 'no'.
No doubt the Port of Corpus Christi is booming with more than 8,100 vessels moving through the port last year alone.
Not only is it the number one crude oil export gateway in the US but the third largest in the entire world just behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Chief External Affairs Officer Omar Garcia said the Port is in a great position to receive crude oil from the Permian Basin with four main pipelines that point into our direction. Those pipelines include Cactus I, Cactus II, EPIC Pipeline and Gray Oak Pipeline.
"The utilization rate is anywhere from 88 to 92 percent, so they're just about full," Garcia said.
But he said there is still room to grow as industry looks to add a little more capacity to meet growing global demand.
"If you combine those four, if those four pipes were completely full, you're talking about 2.5 million barrels come to the Port of Corpus Christi every day," he said.
Garcia said we could grow another 120,000-200,000 barrels per day.
"After that, a lot of that crude will begin to flow up towards Houston...we'll be completely full," he said.
But could the Port or Corpus Christi lose business if that happens?
"It might, but until the demand grows to a certain point where industry feels the need that they need to invest in another pipeline pointed to Corpus we want to retain what we have and keep that market share," he said.
Garcia said the channel improvement project will continue to give the Port of Corpus Christi a competitive edge.
The project will take the channel from 47 feet to a depth of 54 feet.
"The economics work," he said. "You can load more crude on these ships. There are several class of vessel classifications the two that we see the most are very large crude carriers and the Suezmax the VLCC can load 2 million barrels. The Suezmax can load a million barrels at a depth of 54, more product, better economics faster in and out of the Port of Corpus Christi," he said.
The ship channel improvement project is in its final stages and is expected to be completed next year.
