Texas GulfLink, LLC is developing a crude oil export terminal approximately 30.5 miles off the Texas Gulf Coast that will be able to safely fully load tankers called Very Large Crude Carriers (“VLCCs”) to export crude oil to global markets. 

With the lifting of the crude oil export ban in December 2015, the United States has access to new markets for growing U.S.-produced crude oil.  VLCCs are the ideal tanker to serve these new markets, especially those in Asia, but their deep drafts make full loading at existing near-shore ports costly and less efficient.

Currently, most VLCCs are loaded by a process called “reverse lightering” in which up to four smaller tankers ferry crude oil to VLCCs anchored offshore, empty their tanks, and return to port to be loaded again.  Texas GulfLink, by contrast, will load VLCCs and other tankers directly at the terminal.  Texas GulfLink’s direct-loading capabilities of VLCCs and other tankers offshore will reduce overall emissions by approximately 86% when compared to the cumulative effects of reverse lightering.  Texas GulfLink will also reduce the congestion at near-shore ports, delivering additional environmental benefits and improving safety.

Texas GulfLink’s more efficient loading process will be further enhanced by active vessel-based vapor recovery at the facility.  A dynamic-positioned support vessel, the first of its kind in the United States and Jones Act compliant will pull alongside a VLCC under load and capture and condense volatile organic compounds (“VOCs”) into a liquid that can be sold for industrial use.  This process will prevent the emission of up to 19,000 tons of VOCs, which include hazardous air pollutants (“HAPs”), from the facility into the atmosphere annually.

Texas GulfLink is the only proposed offshore crude oil export terminal whose design complies with all current safe maneuvering guidelines for VLCCs at an SPM. Texas GulfLink’s navigation team, made up of marine experts with real-world experience operating deepwater ports, has devoted substantial hours and resources to ensuring that its deepwater port design was sufficiently safe and compliant with current guidelines, including maneuvering studies and simulations, confirming with multiple senior Master Mariner industry opinions, commissioning a Lloyd’s Register full port assessment, review of other Deepwater Port SPMs, and a close review of all Class, OCIMF, and PIANC guidance documentation.  For more information, please see the “Safe Port Design Overview” section.

Texas GulfLink will deliver other benefits as well: By lowering the cost to export a barrel of American crude oil to a price that is more attractive to potential import customers, it will allow these customers to cut ties with rogue regimes that use their crude oil reserves to exert toxic political influence.  Texas GulfLink’s less carbon-intensive platform will also help the United States reach the goals of the Paris Climate Accords and achieve “net zero” emissions.  Further, Texas GulfLink will replace VOC-emitting lightering activity in near-shore ports with a loading process that takes place more than 30 miles offshore, leading to improved air quality in portside communities.

Texas GulfLink will also create a sizable economic benefit. In fact, based on an independent economic study, Texas GulfLink will generate substantial gains in US business activity including nearly $1.1 billion in gross product and thousands of jobs during the construction phase.  Following construction, Texas GulfLink will provide long-term, high-paying American jobs while simultaneously enhancing the national security of the United States and allies around the world.

Texas GulfLink’s onshore terminal will be located near Jones Creek in Brazoria County, Texas, and will consist of above-ground geodesic dome storage tanks that will receive crude oil from the Houston market via an inbound 36-inch onshore pipeline.  Crude oil will be pumped from the storage tanks to the offshore terminal via a 42-inch outside diameter pipeline that will terminate at one of two Single Point Mooring (“SPM”) buoys located approximately 32 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.  VLCCs will moor to the SPMs and be loaded with up to two million barrels of crude oil in a single load.  A support vessel will perform vapor recovery operations during loading.  A fixed offshore platform located approximately 1.25 nautical miles from the SPM buoys will be manned to provide round-the-clock port monitoring, custody transfer metering, and surge relief to ensure that the port is operated at the highest standards of safety.

Texas GulfLink applied with the Maritime Administration (“MARAD”) for a license to construct, own, operate, and decommission the crude oil export terminal on May 30, 2019.  The Texas GulfLink team is working diligently with MARAD, the United States Coast Guard (“USCG”), and other federal, state, and local agencies to ensure the application is timely processed. Texas GulfLink’s application and other relevant filings can be found online here.