Update: Rush for GC deepwater ports

The oil export boom has set off a mad dash to build Gulf Coast ports to handle more than 3 million barrels per day in new supplies anticipated over the next five years. Of seven proposed Gulf Coast oil-export projects in the hopper, nowhere is the competition more heated that in Corpus Christi, Texas, where three firms are vying to open the state's first deep-water port. There is only U.S. facility, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which is headquartered in Covington, and has an operations center in Cut Off, can fully load supertankers capable of carrying 2 million barrels. The Corpus Christi port exports less than 1 million bpd, and its harbor is too shallow to fully load supertankers. The trio includes Trafigura, Carlyle Group, and Magellan Midstream Partners. Kinder Morgan Inc., JupiterMLP, and Tallgrass Energy have also proposed offshore ports along the Gulf Coast. (Source: Maritime Professional 01/10/19) Note: China, the fastest growing consumer of the fuel, became the world's second biggest LNG buyer in 2017. The U.S. is on track to become the world's third biggest LNG exporter by capacity this year as additional export terminals enter service. Firms proposing new U.S. LNG export terminals expressed optimism a new U.S.-China trade agreement could help advance their projects. UPDATE: Three cargo ship's filled with U.S. crude oil are on their way to China from the Gulf Coast, sources told Maritime Logistics on Jan. 14. It is the first departures since late September and a 90-day pause in the nations' trade spat that began in December. The vessels left Galveston, Texas, last month and are scheduled to arrive at Chinese ports between late January and early March, according to vessel tracking data. The shipments mark a change since Chinese buyers began avoiding American oil during the trade dispute from last summer.