Posted on December 17, 2018
The Port of Corpus Christi awarded two major contracts to begin work building a marine storage terminal on Harbor Island at the Wednesday, Dec. 13, port of commissioners meeting. Contracts awarded total $12 million: $5.4 million with Derrick Construction Co. Inc. of Rockport to remove three exiting docks on the island and $6.5 million with AEP to build infrastructure necessary to provide electricity to the new terminal.
Commissioners said the terminal is necessary to meet export needs around the world. The Port of Corpus Christi is the top exporter of crude oil in the nation, a status earned after Congress lifted a ban on foreign exports in December 2015. Coupled with a 75-foot deep dredging project to Harbor Island, the terminal will allow the world’s largest vessels to fully load and depart from Harbor Island.
Not everyone is happy about the port’s plans for Harbor Island. A newly formed group called the Port Aransas Conservancy has pushed back on further development, which also includes a possible desalination plant planned by the port. The port countered in a written statement that all development would be sensitive to “our environmental stewardship mandate.”
The AEP contract created some controversy as well, this time with opposition coming from the port. Commissioners asked AEP to guarantee that no other property owners on Harbor Island could use the new infrastructure for electricity. They were particularly concerned with plans by the Ed Rachal Foundation to also build a terminal on the site. The foundation owns 320 acres on the island near the ferry landing.
AEP officials made it clear that nothing they installed on the island could legally exclude customers, no matter who pays for it.
“We can’t work with the port to block a customer from coming in there,” said Bradley Lentz, director of Economic and Business Development with AEP. “That’s not legal from where we stand.”
Commissioners stated that the goal was to have the new terminal operating by 2020.
“I think what we did on Harbor Island today absolutely sets the tone for the future of the Port of Corpus Christi,” said Charlie Zahn, port commission chairman and Port Aransas resident. “We took a couple of huge steps today to make that a reality. When I have people in the community that I’ve lived in for 49 years question me about it, I look them right in the eye and say, ‘We’re going to build an oil export terminal on Harbor Island, and you can take that to the bank.’”
Source: Business News
