CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — It has been close to two months now since the departure of former CEO Sean Strawbridge at the Port of Corpus Christi.
Since then, Kent Britton, the Port's Chief Financial Officer has been serving as interim CEO.
"The temporary change in leadership at the top isn't going to slow down anything that we currently do here," he said.
As commissioners narrow down a list of candidates to fill the top job, he calls the continued growth a testament to the strength of the port's customers and their capacity to meet the energy needs of global trading partners and allies. Britton highlights a jump in crude oil.
"We've actually seen an increase over the past five to seven years in non-liquid products, but they've been dwarfed by the increase in liquid products, particularly in crude oil and liquefied natural gas, moving off the La Quinta ship channel," he said.
The Port of Corpus Christi saw a 3.1 percent increase in crude oil shipments (to nearly 31.1 million tons) compared to Q1 2023.
He said they've also seen interest from new energy companies eyeing the port as their home.
"Over the last 10 years, there's been roughly $60 billion of new investment in this area, that's a huge number, they would rank us ahead of most states, in the United States," he said.
The Ship Channel Improvement Project is also inching closer to the finish line. The project aims to widen and deepen the channel from 47to 54 ft, meeting the need for larger vessels.
Something that is helping drive that interest from additional industry.
"I'm a huge baseball fan. So if this were a baseball game, we'd say we're in the sixth or seventh inning," he said.
Britton said the Port of Corpus Christi should start seeing the benefits of the completion of phase two of the project, which goes past Ingleside Point.
"When we signed the project partnership with Corps of Engineers in 2018, that gave some assurance to crude oil exporters that as they were coming to the most improved ship channel on the Gulf Coast, we're going to have seven feet more water than anyone else who's exporting crude oil on the Gulf," he said.
The third phase should be completed in 2023, and the fourth and final phase is out for bid and expected to be awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by October.
Britton confirmed to 3NEWS he is vying for the CEO job but he's not alone.
Port of Corpus Christi Chairman Charles Zahn said that 46 candidates had applied for the job. Out of those candidates the list has been narrowed down to just five. A decision is expect by September.
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