Enterprise Working to Address U.S. Regulatory Delays on Offshore Crude Terminal

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June 9 (Reuters) – Enterprise Products Partners LP is working with U.S. officials to advance an offshore crude terminal project after the review schedule was suspended last week, the company said.

Enterprise and Enbridge Inc agreed late last year to jointly develop a U.S. Gulf Coast crude export terminal known as Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT) that would load supertankers off Freeport, Texas.

The application review schedule was suspended after SPOT Terminal Services LLC said it needed additional time to fully respond to information requests, according to a June 4 letter by the United States Coast Guard and Maritime Administration (MARAD).

The USCG and MARAD have requested more information such as the project description and a list of landowners that would be affected, according to the letter.

Enterprise is addressing the requests, reviewing submissions from the public comment period and other input from landowners and public officials, a company spokesman said via email late on Monday.

“This work includes evaluating options to meet our business needs while mitigating concerns that have been expressed,” he said.

The terminal is designed to load Very Large Crude Carriers at about 85,000 barrels per hour, or up to about 2 million barrels per day.

Midstream companies raced to add export terminals in the U.S. Gulf Coast as shale production boomed and crude exports rose to more than 3 million bpd. But as oil prices plunged and exports slumped this year, some energy projects have been delayed. (Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar and Arathy S Nair; Editing by Richard Chang)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019.

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