December 9, 2012 [OPIS] - Plains All American Pipeline has finally cancelled a project to build a crude oil terminal, dock facilities and pipelines at the Port of Los Angeles in southern California after a lengthy delay, the company and port officials told OPIS.
The project cancellation was blamed on a number of factors, including project delays, the economic downturn, regulatory and permitting hurdles, a challenging refining environment in California and an industry shift in the outlook for availability of domestic crude oil, Plains said.
The Pacific L.A. Marine Terminal LLC Pier 400 project was initiated in 2003 to provide a deep-water port to Southern California.
The plan called for construction of a new berth at the Port of Los Angeles’ Pier 400, Berth 408; crude oil storage tanks on Pier 400 and Terminal Island; and associated pipelines to bring crude oil from the waterfront to the storage tanks.
Crude oil would be offloaded from tankers into the storage tanks and pumped to local refineries.
In November, Plains All American Pipeline decided not to proceed with the development of the Pier 400 project.
Since inheriting the Pier 400 project in connection with the acquisition of Pacific Energy Partners in late 2006, the company invested significant time and capital working through the regulatory process and negotiating with a variety of potential customers while also re-engineering the project to meet environmental requirements and adapt to the changing needs of potential customers.
PAA is and will remain a significant owner and operator of crude oil, refined products and NGL infrastructure in California and expects to continue to develop and execute growth projects in California.
A spokesman for the Port of Los Angeles said that the Port and Plains had split the $3 million cost of environmental impact study for the cancelled project.
“We put in the money for the study for this project, but this (project cancellation) sometimes happens,” said Phillip Sanfield, the spokesman for the Port of Los Angeles.
He added that permits from the port authorities for the Plains crude oil terminal project were given in 2008, but that project never got off the ground in the past few years.
On Wednesday, Plains agreed to acquire four operating crude oil rail terminals, one terminal under development and various contractual arrangements from U.S. Development Group (USD) for approximately $500 million.
In its recent presentations to analysts and investment community, Plains highlighted ongoing crude oil crude oil and NGL asset expansion plans in Eagle Ford, Permian Basin, Bakken Marcellus/Utica, Rockies and Canada.
