Deepwater crude oil export project looks to build offshore Louisiana

Looks like Louisiana's Port Fourchon and the LOOP's days are going to be numbered as new larger and more efficient crude oil export platforms will now move to or towards Texas. The article's title is actually sort of misleading because the proposed deepwater port is closer to Texas than Louisiana.

Advocate

"Dallas-based Energy Transfer LP is seeking to replace an existing offshore natural gas platform and build a crude oil export project in the Gulf of Mexico 99 miles offshore from Cameron Parish in southwest Louisiana."

"The Maritime Administration is considering issuing a license to the business for its deepwater port, which could load up to 80,000 barrels of crude oil every hour onto very large oil carriers too large to visit onshore ports. The maximum capacity would be 2 million barrels per day."

The facility would be a competitor to the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which was built in the late 1970s as an import facility about 20 miles offshore from Port Fourchon, then retrofitted for exports. The import facility is collectively owned and operated by Marathon, Shell and Valero. The oil port stands in 110 feet of water and has 60 million barrels of crude oil storage capacity inside underground caverns that are naturally occurring salt domes. The oil port can export up to 1.2 million barrels of crude oil each day.

At least three other unrelated deepwater oil export terminals are being proposed in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast. Bluewater Texas Terminal LLC, a joint venture between Phillips 66 and Trafigura Group Pte Ltd., is proposing a terminal 21 miles off the coast from Corpus Christi. Sea Port Oil Terminal, a deal between Enterprise Products Partners and Canadian pipeline operator Enbridge, is proposed about 30 miles off the coast from Houston. Under review is Texas GulfLink LLC, owned by Sentinel Midstream, is proposed 30 miles off the coast from Freeport.