VLCC At Corpus Christi -- Successfully Tested -- OXY -- May 29, 2017

Updates

September 25, 2017: update on the OXY Corpus Christi terminal. To be complete by end of 2018.

Later, 11:35 p.m. Central Time: see comments from a reader.

Propane - propylene here: https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=W_EPLLPZ_EEX_NUS-Z00_MBBLD&f=W.

Ethane - ethylene here: https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=METEXUS2&f=A.

Original Post

This is pretty incredible. Earlier a reader sent me a link to a story reporting that this historic event had been delayed 24 hours due to a local thunderstorm.

Apparently, things are back on schedule. New link to a new story. Data points:

• supertankers tested at Port Corpus Christi, TX
• mammoth tanker docking Friday at Port Corpus Christi, historic and successful
• 1,093-foot-long EuroNav tanker: Anne
• docked at Oxy's crude oil export facility
• classified as a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) 
• Belgian-owned ship: largest crude oil tanker to call on a Gulf of Mexico port
• will boost crude oil exports from Texas
• when fully loaded: the bottom of the hull -- 66 feet down
• unfortunately, Corpus Christi Ship Channel is only 45 feet deep
• so, they partially load the tanker dockside and then finish the loading in deeper waters using using a smaller ship and ship-to-ship transfer
• will fill up to 60% capacity dockside
• tanker at 100% capacity will hold 2.2 million bbls of crude oil for European and Asian markets
• Port of Corpus Christi plans to deepen its channel; build a higher harbor bridge to accommodate larger vessels

Think about that:

• ten years ago we were talking about Peak Oil
• President Carter: "start wearing cardigan sweaters"
• President Obama: "we can't drill out way to cheaper oil"
• now, VLCCs are docking off Texas
• Texas will dredge a channel to make it twenty feet deeper (20/45 = 44%)
• will build a new bridge over the channel
• all to export oil from the Permian -- an old basin thought to be dead ... until the Bakken revolution
• not in a generation; not in a lifetime; in less than ten years