The build-out of Houston-area crude oil storage and marine terminal capacity continues, and as it does, ship congestion in the Houston Ship Channel worsens. Which raises the question, why not develop more crude storage and marine docks outside the Ship Channel that still offers strong pipeline connectivity to crude production areas, the Cushing hub and Houston-area refineries—plus easier access to the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico? That’s a key premise behind Oiltanking’s first major Gulf Coast expansion since the February 2015 sale of most of Oiltanking’s assets in the region to Enterprise Products Partners. Today we discuss Oiltanking’s plan to add crude storage and a marine terminal in Texas City, TX.
The greater Houston area is a magnet for crude oil. Houston remains the capital of North American refining. It has 10 refineries with a combined distillation capacity of about 2.5 MMb/d; more than 50 MMbbl of storage capacity; and port facilities capable of both receiving large volumes of oil (imported and domestic) and sending out large volumes of crude (to other U.S. ports, to Canada and—since the ban on oil exports was lifted in December 2015—to the rest of the world). Houston also is the hub of an extraordinary pipeline and storage network, much of it developed or repurposed over the past four or five years, that can receive light crude and condensate from the Permian Basin and the Eagle Ford, light crude from the Bakken and other U.S. shale regions, and heavy crude from western Canada. Parts of this same pipeline/storage network can receive imported crude from Houston-area docks, or shuttle oil east to refineries in Port Arthur, TX, Lake Charles, LA and farther up the East Coast.
Visualize the infrastructure behind U.S. NGL movement.
The U.S. NGLs Map provides a comprehensive view of the transport, processing, and export networks moving NGLs across the U.S.
RBN has tracked the continuing expansion of crude-related infrastructure in the Houston area in blogs and in two Drill Down reports: first in Houston We Have A Problem and then in Stairway to Houston. More recently, in the two-part Up the Junction blog series, we discussed a new round of projects now under way to continue expanding the region’s distribution pipelines, storage and marine-dock infrastructure. The purpose of building out these assets is to provide incoming pipeline shippers with the facilities they need to serve refineries in the Houston area and—as throughput increases—to provide marine dock access for domestic or export shipments out of the region.
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About the song
“Easy (Like Sunday Morning)” was a 1977 crossover hit for The Commodores, rising to #1 on the Billboard R&B chart and #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Written by Lionel Richie, the group’s lead singer, the song was followed up by two other Commodore hits (also written by Richie): “Three Times A Lady” and “Still”.
