Originally the former Naval Station at Ingleside before being converted to a crude oil terminal, the Oxy Ingleside Energy Center (OIEC) exports crude oil to international and domestic markets.
"It is a really nice facility that accommodates some pretty good-sized tankers," said OxyChem Plant Manager Rick Ritter, citing the Suezmax, which has a capacity of 750,000 barrels, as well as the Aframax, which has a capacity of 1 million barrels.
"These are big ships, and they carry a lot of crude oil," Ritter said, addressing attendees of the Association of Chemical Industry of Texas (ACIT) South Texas Economic Outlook Luncheon held recently in Corpus Christi, Texas. "And, of course, all this crude oil is coming from the Permian Basin."
Oxy obtained a "big position" in the Permian Basin in the late 1990s, Ritter said.
"The big majors like Exxon and Chevron were all selling because they thought the Permian was cleaned out," he said.
Because Oxy possessed enhanced oil recovery techniques, Ritter said, the decision was made to buy these properties and "make something on them before they just completely played out."
"It turned out, they didn't know what they sold, and we didn't know what we bought: a boatload of oil! I mean, lots of boats!" Ritter continued. "And a lot of it is going to be coming through Port of Corpus Christi, and it's going to be exported through this particular crude oil terminal from Oxy's business."
Other terminals currently operating plan further development and will benefit from the flow of crude oil and natural gas from the Permian Basin in the future, Ritter added.
OIEC currently can store approximately 2.1 million barrels, with plans to increase storage capacity to 7 million barrels.
"OIEC is going to continue to grow to be a major exporter of crude oil," Ritter said. "It is good news for the area. It brings a lot of economic activity, and it's good for the Port of Corpus Christi."
In May, the center successfully docked a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) with a capacity of 2 million barrels, the largest oil tanker ever to dock at a Gulf of Mexico port, designating the OIEC export terminal as the U.S.'s first crude oil export facility to receive a vessel of this size.
"They had a ceremony, and those who were there know that was a pretty big ship," Ritter recalled. "I was thinking, 'How are my ships going to get in and out this channel? I hope this big thing doesn't get stuck! If it does, I'm in trouble. I'm out of business.' But they got it in, they got it out and proved they could do it.
"There's a lot of good economics associated with being able to bring these bigger ships in and load them at a dock -- even if you partially load them before you have to take them offshore and complete loading them by taking smaller ships to finish loading them."
A cool expansion
Located at OIEC, the Chemours plant currently produces freon refrigerant as well as propellant.
Responding to growing demand for chemical refrigerants, the Chemours Ingleside plant (formerly DuPont) broke ground in 2017 for its new $300 million Opteon™ refrigerant plant, hiring 20 plant technicians in preparation for that expansion. In 2018, the plant expects to hire more than 20 more plant technicians to address attrition. Though minor spring and fall outages are planned, Chemours is expected to run at full capacity and also anticipates that prices will improve, Ritter said.
Other members of the OIEC community contributing to the Coastal Bend region's economic development include LyondellBasell Industries, Exxon SABIC and Cheniere Energy, Ritter said.
"This is America's energy picture changing and the opportunities to move American energy to other parts of the world," he concluded.
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