Energy companies band together to urge federal support for Port Corpus Christi ship channel improvements
The CEOs of six U.S. energy companies are currently urging President Donald Trump to create funding support for the Corpus Christi Ship Channel Improvement Project (CIP).
In a letter written under the collective weight of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, NuStar Energy L.P., Buckeye Partners L.P., Howard Energy Partners, Plains All American Pipeline, and Cheniere Energy Inc., funding was requested for the United States Army Corps of Engineers to both deepen and widen the port’s ship channel to better meet increased oil and natural gas demands.
“The Port generates approximately $20 billion in economic activity for the state of Texas, including nearly $5 billion in personal income, as well as $353 million in state and local taxes and 80,000 in port-related jobs,” the CEOs wrote. “The 2015 lifting of the U.S. crude oil export ban allowed our companies to invest nearly $50 billion in industrial projects underway in South Texas that rely on the Corpus Christi Ship Channel to move our products, creating tens of thousands of jobs and billions in additional economic output. Many of those new industrial projects include announced pipelines from Permian Basin to the Port of Corpus Christi designed to handle significant increases in U.S. oil and gas production, which will enhance U.S. energy dominance and our allies’ energy security well into the future.”
Building on this, they requested $60 million for the project in his 2019 budget. The port is already the largest export port of U.S. produced crude oil and a major export hub for other U.S. energy products, but the investment has the potential to increase their capabilities still further.
”Funding the CIP is an opportunity to invest in a national transportation asset that would allow our U.S. companies and the port to significantly increase our export capacity and help solidify the U.S. as a world energy leader,” the CEOs wrote.
According to Energy Analysts International, the port exported more than $6 billion of crude oil to U.S. trading partners in 2017.
