AAPA Seaports Advisory
 

Channel Deepening: Corpus Christi, Virginia

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Leading Energy Companies Urge President to Support Port Corpus Christi Ship Channel Improvement Project 
 
CEOs of six well-known American energy companies today signed a letter addressed to President Donald Trump in support of the Corpus Christi Ship Channel Improvement Project (CIP). The letter requests funding for the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to deepen and widen the Corpus Christi Ship Channel in an effort to meet surging global demand for U.S. produced oil and natural gas.  The Port of Corpus Christi is the largest export port of U.S. produced crude oil, and is a major export hub for U.S. energy products.  The full text of the letter can be viewed here.
 
CEOs from Occidental Petroleum Corporation, NuStar Energy L.P., Buckeye Partners, L.P., Howard Energy Partners, Plains All American Pipeline, and Cheniere Energy, Inc. specifically asked that the President include $60 million for this project in his Fiscal Year 2019 Presidential Budget to begin Federal participation in its construction.
 
"Funding the CIP is an opportunity to invest in a national transportation asset that would allow our U.S. companies and the port to significantly increase our export capacity and help solidify the U.S. as a world energy leader," the CEOs stated in their letter to President Trump.
 
"With widespread bipartisan support, we are confident you will find this project the most worthy of funding of all U.S. coastal navigation construction projects in the Nation," said Sean Strawbridge, Port Corpus Christi CEO in an attached letter to President Trump. "In support of this project are U.S. energy companies who themselves are investing billions in infrastructure from the rich producing energy fields of West Texas to Corpus Christi.  As the gateway to the global markets, Port Corpus Christi must ensure the infrastructure it oversees, namely the Corpus Christi Ship Channel, is capable of  transporting safely and competitively the anticipated increased export volumes of crude oil, natural gas, and other petroleum products. At the center of the emergence of the United States as a dominant player in the global energy market is the Corpus Christi Ship Channel Improvement Project."
 
Exporting American crude supports U.S. allies abroad by providing an alternative source for reliable and affordable fuel, strengthens our trading relationships and bolsters U.S. energy production. According to Energy Analysts International, the Port of Corpus Christi exported more than $6 billion of crude oil to U.S. trading partners in 2017 contributing to offset the United States trade deficit.
 
Port of Virginia’s Wider, Deeper, Safer Effort Clears Critical Milestone
 
Port of Virginia’s effort to make the Norfolk Harbor wider, deeper and safer took a significant step forward today as the plan outlining the project’s national economic benefits was approved by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take its next step forward.
 
"This is an infrastructure project that holds value for Virginia, the national economy and national defense," said John F. Reinhart, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority. "The long-term economic benefits of this project include job creation, economic investment and the efficient flow of goods to Virginians, to multiple markets in the Mid-Atlantic and into the nation’s Heartland. Additionally, there are benefits to the U.S. Navy and all the users of the harbor."
 
On Friday, the Army Corps’ leadership in Washington, D.C., accepted the wider, deeper, safer National Economic Development benefit (NED) plan, which estimates the value to the nation of large civil works programs that will be funded, in part, by the federal government. The value of these programs is expressed in terms of each program’s contributions to NED benefits and revenues to the federal government.
 
"This positive outcome is the result of collaboration within our agency, with The Port of Virginia, and the many stakeholders that rely on this critical infrastructure," said Col. Colonel Jason E. Kelly, commander, Norfolk District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "Today’s event is a great example of Army Corps process evolution. This project will greatly impact existing inefficiencies in a positive way."
 
Today’s decision allows the wider, deeper, safer project to move forward to its final review by the Army Corps in June. In anticipation of a positive outcome of that review, $20 million has been included in the pending state budget to immediately begin preliminary engineering and design work on the project.
 
In June 2015, the port and the Army Corps’ Norfolk District office began collaborating on the wider, deeper, safer effort to prepare the port for the next generation of container vessels. The port’s channels and harbor are already 50 feet deep and the largest container ships in the Atlantic trade are calling Virginia. Deepening to 55 feet and widening the channel to 1,300 feet will allow for the big ships to load to their limit and make way for two-ship traffic.

 

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