The Bluewater Terminal is a joint venture between Phillips 66 and Trafigura. Phillips 66 is a diversified energy manufacturing and logistics company, while Trafigura is a trading house that specializes in infrastructure investments and logistics that help drive U.S. exports to international markets. Together, these two companies have teamed up to build the Bluewater Texas Terminal – an offshore mono-buoy system, or export terminal, for tankers.
Building the mono-buoy is strategic for several reasons. First, large oil tankers require special ports with ample depths for these ships to pull into. There are roughly seven sizes of tankers but three of them cannot pull into harbors without the proper port depths. To meet the port depths, dredging projects must be completed and new infrastructure must be built – these projects must also go through stringent regulatory and permitting processes. Currently, LR2 ships, Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) and Ultra-Large Crude Carriers (ULCC) cannot pull into the Port of Corpus Christi to use the available resources in the refining complex, so the Bluewater Texas Terminal is an alternative for ships to have access to these resources.
It is significant to note that companies like these will only finance and build projects like the Bluewater Terminal if there is substantial market demand for energy to address bottlenecks and capacity issues due to infrastructure challenges. To address the issue of port depths, avoid dredging the harbor and potentially disrupting the local ecosystem, and still meet demand so that ships are not empty and stalled off the coast, Phillips 66 and Trafigura have proposed a mono-buoy system. This system would take oil from an onshore terminal located near Taft off of FM 893 and transport it onshore through two 30” diameter pipelines that would run out to a Phillips 66 property in the industrial section of Harbor Island. From there it would run along a current, permitted right-of-way for existing pipeline systems and out to the platform located 24 miles off the coast.
By utilizing a mono-buoy system along the current right-of-way, the project helps Port Aransas preserve the current coastline and prevents major disruptions at its harbor. It also avoids impeding tourist areas and disrupting wildlife. It also ensures that these large ships will be Beyond the Bend and out of sight. Most importantly though, this privately funded project will meet the demands of the international energy markets and alleviate capacity issues tankers in the region are facing while helping to revitalize our economy and support our communities, schools, and first responders.
If you’d like to see what a rendering of the project would look like, click on the video below.
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