Global commodities trader Trafigura has applied to build a deep-water port in Corpus Christi, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico, which will be able to load supertankers.
The company said it had applied for a permit on July 9 via its subsidiary Texas Gulf Terminals.
“The Texas Gulf Terminals Project will give U.S. crude oil producers, particularly Texas operators, safer, cleaner and more efficient access to very large crude carriers, ensuring that the economic and employment benefits of increasing domestic crude production can be fully realized right here at home,” said Corey Prologo, director of Texas Gulf Terminals Inc. and Trafigura.
It requires approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s maritime division.
The United States began exporting crude oil in 2016 after the ban on exports was lifted but while its production and exports keep hitting new highs, its infrastructure has not kept up, according to Reuters.
The only offshore terminal operating in the Gulf is the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, called LOOP.
The United States exports more than 2 million barrels per day of crude while output hit 11 million bpd for the first time last month, making the country the biggest producer in the world after Russia.
Houston energy company Enterprise Products Partners also has plans to build an even larger offshore oil-exporting terminal south of Galveston. Its pipeline will expand about 80 miles.
In early 2016, Trafigura chartered the ship for the first U.S. crude export shipment to Europe in more than 40 years. And continues to be a leading exporter of crude and petroleum products from the Gulf Coast.
Earlier this year, Trafigura also signed a contract with Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline, to ship up to 300,000 barrels of crude a day on Plains’ Cactus II oil pipeline from the Permian to Corpus Christi.
