A recently completed dredging project at Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center (EIEC) in Corpus Christi, Texas, is letting the oil export terminal load up to 25pc more crude onto very large crude carriers (VLCCs), giving it an even greater advantage over competitors.
Ingleside's two export terminals, EIEC and Gibson Energy's South Texas Gateway (STG), have held a competitive advantage over other US terminals because they could load a VLCC to 1.2mn bl, with the remainder of the vessel's 2mn-bl capacity topped off by Aframax shuttle vessels once they are in deeper waters.
Now EIEC, already the single-largest US export terminal, has a leg up on STG and other Gulf coast marine terminals after Enbridge completed a dredging project to deepen the draft at its docks to 55ft — allowing it to fill a VLCC to 1.5mn bls. The dredging was done in tandem with a wider project underway by the Port of Corpus Christi to widen and deepen the channel depth from 47ft to 54ft.
"We are the only dock in Corpus Christi that has done that," Enbridge senior vice president of business development for liquids Phil Anderson told Argus in an interview. "That is now allowing us to load more crude onto both Suezmax and VLCCs."
Enbridge has been steadily increasing the amount of crude it has loaded onto vessels, and is now loading vessels to a draft of 51ft, allowing the 1.5mn bl loading on VLCCs and fully loading Suezmax vessels to 1mn bl for the first time. Enbridge could potentially boost loadings to reach a draft of 52ft, but "We're pretty thrilled right now to be able to offer our shippers that 51 feet," he said.
To top off to full capacity, VLCCs departing from EIEC now only need to be reverse-lightered by one Aframax vessel, down from two previously, which reduces times and costs.
Booming right along
Enbridge has been gradually increasing loadings since July, with 74 vessels participating in a program to test ever-deeper drafts, Anderson said. Enbridge has seen the proportion of VLCCs calling on EIEC increase to reach nearly half of total vessels in recent weeks. The rest of the total has been mainly Suezmax vessels, with a drop-off in Aframax loadings, he said.
"Our customers are taking advantage of that deeper draft and business continues to boom right along for us," he said.
Though inbound pipelines to the Corpus Christi area from the Permian basin have filled up in recent months, pipeline capacity is not limiting the upside for EIEC loadings, he said.
"I don't think we feel like we have hit an absolute limit yet," he said, though "the pipes are definitely having higher utilization." This includes the 900,000 b/d Gray Oak pipeline, a key long-haul line from the Permian basin to Corpus Christi.
A bigger near-term constraint has been tankage capacity at EIEC, he said. To that end Enbridge plans to boost the terminal's current 15mn bl tank capacity by 2mn bl in April, and "we are likely not done with our tank expansions", he said.
EIEC vessel loadings have recently averaged about 1mn b/d, and that capacity could increase to roughly 1.1mn b/d once the additional tank capacity comes online, he said, depending on customer needs.
