A US Gulf Coast oil terminal may add a second aframax-capable dock by 2018 as part of its expansion plans.
The Seabrook Logistics facility, a joint venture of Magellan Midstream and LBC Tank Terminals, currently has planned storage of 700,000 barrels and includes a new dock with a 13.7-metre draught. That facility is expected to come online by the first quarter of 2017.
Seabrook said it will go ahead with an expansion that will eventually add another 1.7 million barrels of crude and condensate storage to the site located just outside the Houston Ship Channel in Galveston Bay. The expansion is expected to be ready by mid-2018.
Seabrook said the expansion could add a second aframax ship to the site, which may be expanded to a suezmax-capable ship dock, if there is sufficient demand. The dock would include a bi-directional pipeline, allowing it to handle both imports and exports. Seabrook says the additional dockage could be ready by late 2018.
LBC Tank Terminal operates an adjacent tank farm that has capability of handling up to four aframax tankers.
Opec cuts positive for US crude
The news comes amid a growing market for seaborne crude from the US. Exports of crude oil hit a new high during the last week of November at nearly 500,000 barrels per day, according to the US Energy Information Administration, up from 455,000 barrels per day.
As earlier reported in TradeWinds, tanker executives are bullish on the prospect that reduced cargoes from Opec members may be mitigated by increased US shale oil production.
Ridgebury Tankers chief executive Robert Burke told a London conference that US shale production is economic at current prices. Euronav chief executive Paddy Rodgers says “shale producers can sell forward and start pumping” based on current price outlooks.
