Houston, 30 January (Argus) — Calumet Specialty Products Partners announced it will explore the feasibility of building and operating a crude oil dock on Lake Superior, near its 35,000 b/d Superior, Wisconsin, refinery. The dock would be designed to load ships with heavy Canadian and light Bakken crude for shipment through connecting waterways.
The company said that pending positive market feedback the project could be fully operational during the shipping season of 2015.
The waterways of the Great Lakes would allow barges or Handymax–sized vessels to carry cargoes of up to 50,000 bl to refiners in Padd 1, Padd 2 or eastern Canada through the Saint Lawrence Seaway.
A person familiar with operations at the port of Duluth-Superior said that vessels can sail from the port 10 months a year, but the port is closed from late-December to late-March as the lake freezes over.
Ship sizes entering the port cannot exceed a length of 740ft (226m) – eliminating Panamax and post-Panamax sized vessels.
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