A group of six energy companies on Wednesday called for federal funding for dredging of the Corpus Christi Ship Channel in Texas.
CEOs from Occidental Petroleum Corporation, NuStar Energy, Buckeye Partners, Howard Energy Partners, Plains All American Pipeline and Cheniere Energy jointly sent a letter to US President Donald Trump requesting that he allocate $60 million to the project in his Fiscal Year 2019 Presidential Budget.
They say that the ship channel needs widening and deepening to accommodate the boom in US oil exports that has been unleashed since a 2015 decision ending a 40-year ban on almost all oil exports.
Corpus Christi is the largest export point for US crude.
As envisaged, the dredging would widen the waterway to 530 feet and deepen it to 54 feet, allowing for safer passage of bigger ships such as VLCCs.
Last October the Port of Corpus Christi signed a Project Partnership Agreement on this with the US Army Corps of Engineers. But so far there has been no funding forthcoming to get things moving.
