May 14, 2012 [Caller] - Port of Corpus Christi commissioners on Tuesday approved a lease agreement with NuStar Logistics for more than 4 acres currently leased to Gulf Copper. NuStar will convert the cargo dock into a large private oil dock to move Eagle Ford products to customers.
Gulf Copper has leased about 5 acres along the Corpus Christi Ship Channel since 1998 where the company repaired minesweepers and commercial vessels. That business has declined since the closure of Naval Station Ingleside, port engineering services director Greg Brubeck told commissioners.
NuStar estimates it could take 18 months to plan, permit and complete the project, port Executive Director John LaRue wrote in a memo to commissioners. Among the terms of the deal, NuStar would get an initial lease period of five years with options afterward for three five-year periods.
NuStar would pay a base annual rent of $250,000. The company will be required to move 50,000 barrels of oil per day through the public oil dock it already uses and 40,000 barrels per day through the converted private dock, according to the agreement.
That arrangement could net the port $2.1 million in revenue, which is more than the $1.7 million they get through NuStar’s use of the public docks.
NuStar’s board of directors must still OK the agreement.
Jim Siciliano, vice president of business development for NuStar’s domestic terminals and pipelines division, said approval will happen and called the project key to the company’s strategy in moving Eagle Ford crude to market.
Space at port facilities has become a premium as Eagle Ford production continues to increase, Brubeck said.
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