Oiltanking crude storage tanks $340M facility in Beaumont

BEAUMONT – Oiltanking Partners will add up to 6.2 million barrels of crude storage capacity to its terminal in Beaumont. The multiphase expansion project, expected to cost approximately $340 million, will also include new pipelines and dock infrastructure at the facility.

Oiltanking says the project is designed to meet the growing needs of its customers in the Beaumont-Port Arthur region, where the current refining capacity stands at about 1.5 million barrels per day.

As many as 3 million barrels of crude a day could flow into the Beaumont-Port Arthur market following the completion of a number of long-haul pipelines, including the TransCanada Gulf Coast Project, Shell’s Houston-to-Houma pipeline and the Port Arthur extension of the Seaway Pipeline.

The cost of the first phase of Oiltanking’s expansion includes required pipeline connections and manifold infrastructure, as well as the cost of building a new finger pier with two new deep-water docks. These docks will be configured to load and unload crude and feedstocks at high rates.

Oiltanking says it will begin delivering the initial tanks to customers towards the end of 2015, with the balance of the tanks coming online as they are completed through the first half of 2016.

Upon completion, the Beaumont terminal is expected to have 11.7 million barrels of total capacity, bringing Oiltanking’s’ total to almost 35 million barrels of storage.