We spent part of the week at the Fall Eagle Ford Consortium Conference and were able to attend a tour of the Port of Corpus Christi. In the past, oil was arriving on a regular basis, but Eagle Ford exports to other parts of the U.S. are outpacing imports for the first time. The Port is booming.

More than $3.8 billion in projects are under construction and another $10.7 billion are in some phase of permitting at the Port. The largest project being considered is a $10 billion natural gas liquefaction plant that has been proposed by Cheniere Energy.

The Cheniere site was formerly a proposed regasification site, but the need to import gas has been minimized by the abundance of shale gas in the U.S. If construction of the export terminal goes forward, as much as 2 bcf/d could be exported from the site.

While the LNG export facility is the biggest project, construction has yet to start and all of the activity seen around the area is related to other projects. A few of the largest projects include:

• Nueces River Rail Yard - $46 million
• M&G PET Resin Plant - Resin used in plastic packaging - $900 million
• Trafigura Crude Oil Terminal - $500 million
• Tianjin Pipe Corp - Seamless Pipe Plant - $1.3 billion
• Oxy's Ingleside Energy Center - LPG Export - $1 billion

Other Takeaways from the Eagle Ford Consortium Conference

• Federal funding is needed to help deepen the port to 52 ft
• Math problem means funding hasn't caught up to Eagle Ford roads and some will be converted to gravel until oil and gas development subsides
• Harbor Bridge in Corpus Christi will have a $800 million price tag
• CNG is becoming more popular with transit authorities
• One company using LNG in its oilfield service trucks expects a pay out in less than two years

Watch for more information in the coming months related to the Annual Eagle Ford Consortium Conference that is held in San Antonio in the spring of each year.