The 35-year dream of widening the Corpus Christi Ship Channel and deepening it to 54 feet from the old 47 feet is at long last a reality. The $625 million project also has spurred marine-terminal owners in Corpus Christi and Ingleside to undertake — or at least consider — major dock and dredging projects that would enable them to make full use of the deeper 30-mile channel. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the newly completed channel-dredging project, related terminal improvements, and what they all mean for crude oil exporting economics in Corpus Christi.
The RBN Crude Oil Analytic Suite gives you access to four weekly reports covering crude oil markets, including: Crude Billboard, Crude Permian, Crude TradeView, and Crude Voyager.
U.S. crude oil exports have been sliding the past few months, in part due to tariff-related upheavals in U.S. and international energy markets. According to RBN’s weekly Crude Voyager report, an average of 3.45 MMb/d were exported from Texas and Louisiana terminals in May, down from 3.87 MMb/d in January and the lowest monthly average since January 2023. Corpus Christi, the #1 port for sending out crude since 2020, has experienced a smaller (but still noteworthy) decline in crude export volumes; its May exports averaged 2.23 MMb/d (stacked bar to far right in Figure 1 below), down from 2.45 MMb/d in January and an average of 2.31 MMb/d in full-year 2024.
Figure 1. Monthly Crude Oil Exports Out of Corpus Christi/Ingleside. Source: Crude Voyager
As we’ve discussed in several blogs, there are at least a couple of reasons why Corpus Christi/Ingleside, with a 61% share of Gulf Coast crude oil exports in the first five months of 2025, has maintained a strong lead over the Houston area (with a 31% share), Beaumont/Nederland (6%) and Louisiana (2%). One is the ability of two Ingleside marine terminals — Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center (EIEC; light-blue bar sections in Figure 1 above) and Gibson Energy’s South Texas Gateway (STG; purple bar sections) — to partially load 2-MMbbl Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) at their docks before sending them out to the deeper waters of the Gulf for topping off via reverse lightering. (VLCCs are the transporters of choice for many shippers moving crude from the Gulf Coast to Asia and Europe because of the lower per-barrel cost.)
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About the song
“Rolling in the Deep” was written by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth and appears as the first song on Adele’s second studio album, 21. Released as the first single from the LP in December 2010, it went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and has been certified 8X Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The lyrics tell a tale of a scorned love, and it became one of the best-selling digital singles of all time. The video for the song won Best Editing, Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards. Personnel on the record were: Adele Adkins (lead vocals), Paul Epworth (guitar, bass, percussion, backing vocals), Ray Carless (tenor sax), Neal Cowley (piano), Noel Langley (trumpet) and Lee Taylor (drums).
21 was recorded between May 2009 and October 2010 at AIR, Angel, Eastcote, Metropolis, MyAudioTonic, Sphere, and Workhorse in London; Harmony and Serenity Sound in Hollywood; Patriot in Denver; and Shangri-La in Malibu. Produced by Adele Adkins, Jim Abbiss, Paul Epworth, Rick Rubin, Fraser T. Smith, Ryan Tedder and Dan Wilson, the album was released in January 2011 and went to #1 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. It has been certified 14X Platinum by the RIAA. Five singles were released from the LP.
Adele (Adele Adkins) is a British singer and songwriter. Her debut album, 19, was released in January 2008. It sold more than 3 million copies worldwide and received four Grammy Award nominations. She has released four studio albums, one live album, two EPs and 17 singles and has sold over 120 million records worldwide. She has won 16 Grammy Awards, 12 Brit Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. In July 2024, Adele announced that she would be taking an indefinite break from music, with no plans for a new album at that time.
