Harbor Island (Lone Star) Oil Terminal

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Harbor Island (Lone Star) Oil Terminal was a proposed oil export terminal in Corpus Christi, Texas, United States. As of late 2023, it is considered cancelled.

Location

The terminal will be located on Harbor Island in Corpus Christi, Texas.

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Project details

• Owner: Lone Star Ports LLC
• Parent company: Carlyle Group; Berry Group
• Location: Corpus Christi, Texas, United States
• Coordinates: 27.846909, -97.058470 (exact)
• Capacity: 1.2 million barrels per day
• Cost: Approximately US$1 billion
• Status: Shelved
• Type: Export
• Start year: 2021

Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcfd = billion cubic feet per day

Background

In March 2019 the Port Commission of Corpus Christi approved a lease agreement of up to 50 years with the Carlyle Group's Lone Star Ports, LLC (“LSP”). The lease was for approximately 200 acres of land on the north side of the Corpus Christi Ship Channel Inner Basin. In October 2019 the Carlyle group announced that it was withdrawing from the project, leaving the Berry group as the sole sponsor.

In September 2020, Port of Corpus Christi CEO Sean Strawbridge acknowledged that, apart from pending permitting approvals from the state and the US Army Corps of Engineers to proceed with channel dredging, the project was still searching for another major financial backer and would additionally require supply pipelines to be developed. Decreased global oil demand as a result of the coronavirus pandemic may also weigh against the project's development: according to US Energy Information Administration data, the US exported 2.9 million b/d of crude in late August, below the 4 million b/d level seen in mid-March 2020. S&P Global Platts Analytics expects exports to fall to around 2 million b/d in 2021.

On 16 March 2021, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Port of Corpus Christi commissioners ended the 50-year lease to Lone Star Ports LLC, effectively shelving the proposed terminal. The Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT) Pipeline off the coast of Corpus Christi is now the closest oil export terminal that is proposed in the area.

As of late 2023, there have been no updates on the project's development, and it is considered cancelled.

Opposition

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Port Aransas, Paradise in Peril

The project is opposed by the Port Aransas Conservacy. The group's stated goal is "to foster a balance of conservation and economically sustainable uses for Port Aransas and its surrounding neighborhood and waterways while recognizing that our community and economy is dependent on tourism and fisheries within a hearty barrier island coastal ecosystem."

In August 2019 the Port Aransas city council passed a 60-day moratorium on permitting for industrial development on Harbor Island. In September 2019 the Port of Corpus Christi then sued Port Aransas, claiming its moratorium is unlawful.

In September 2020, the Port of Corpus Christi and the city of Port Aransas settled all litigation between them, with Port Aransas agreeing to the development of marine terminals capable of servicing VLCCs (very large crude carriers) as well as the dredging that will make it possible for those large vessels to dock at Harbor Island for loading. Pledging to continue fighting the proposed project, the Port Aransas Conservancy said: “The Port of Corpus Christi has not secured the environmental permits or the private financing necessary to proceed, nor has it justified to the citizens of Nueces County the ecological and economic risk the project entails. The settlement simply puts to rest current litigation regarding the marina lease and Harbor Island permitting requirements, while relieving the City of Port Aransas the massive taxpayer-funded legal costs associated with that litigation.”