Phillips 66 and Trafigura Group Pte announced on Friday that they have formed a 50/50 joint venture, known as Bluewater Texas Terminal LLC, which will develop an offshore deepwater port project located approximately 21 nautical miles east of the entrance to the Port of Corpus Christi in Texas.
The JV comes almost 2 yearsafter Trafigura withdrew its application to develop the Texas Gulf Terminals deepwater port facility that was submitted to the United States Maritime Administration in July 2018.
The proposed JV project will be constructed by Phillips 66 and will comprise up to two single-point mooring buoys capable of fully loading very large crude carriers (VLCCs) to export crude oil. Both companies said the project is currently in the permitting stage and they expect to make a final investment decision later this year, pending permit approval and customer volume commitments that support economic return thresholds.
Both companies said the Bluewater Texas JV is also working with the Port of Corpus Christi Authority to provide a safe and environmentally sustainable infrastructure for the export of crude oil to global markets while benefitting the regional economy.