CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Port of Corpus Christi is celebrating another milestone, announcing they ended 2020 with record tonnage passing through the economic gateway. Port officials say it's due to a huge increase in crude oil shipments.
The Port of Corpus Christi is already known as the largest port in the United States in total tonnage. The new annual tonnage record for 2020 is 159.7 million tons, which is a 31-percent increase over 2019.
Officials with the Port said it's attributable to a 65-percent increase in crude oil shipments from 2019.
"We now export more than 50-percent of all crude oil from the United States from right here in Corpus Christi," said Sean Strawbridge who is the CEO of the Port of Corpus Christi.
December alone saw another record, 1.9 million barrels per day of oil exports.
The Port also saw a 26-percent increase in liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments at 8.7 million tons, and agricultural exports increasing 70-percent in 2020 at nearly 4.3 million tons.
Strawbridge said the activity comes despite challenges in the energy sector caused by COVID-19.
"Luckily, we saw a bit of a recovery, but 2021 I think is going to be what I'm calling the pause year. In other words that growth that we've been on, we are going to plateau here at a much higher level that we have been historically which is also good for our economic resiliency in the Coastal Bend," said Strawbridge.
Strawbridge still expects 2021 to be another challenging year as we are not quite out of the pandemic, but he said there is still a world-wide appetite for Texas energy and that's good sign.
As for the new administration and what it means for the local oil and gas industry, Strawbridge said he certainly believes we can expect more regulations as President Biden focuses on climate policies when it comes to exports.
"So, there is a foreign policy component that we think the Biden administration will continue to promote US energy exports, all be it in a more responsible way than perhaps they felt we've done historically so we think we will continue to see that growth in exports under a Biden administration," said Strawbridge.
Meanwhile, the effort to deepen and widen the Corpus Christi Ship Channel is well underway and is expected to be completed in late 2023.
The project just received an additional $100-million worth of federal dollars last month as part of the passage of the Water Resources Development Act.
For the latest updates on coronavirus in the Coastal Bend, click here.
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