October 17, 2012 [Beaumont Enterprise] - GT OmniPort, a crude oil import terminal celebrated its grand opening today about three weeks after becoming fully operational and so far this week has brought in 40,000 barrels of crude oil on railroad tank cars from the Niobrara shale production area in northeastern Colorado where it touches the Kansas and Nebraska state lines.
The terminal began construction about a year ago and now has 8.5 miles of railroad track, space for storing more than 300 railcars, and is in sight of the Valero and Motiva refineries in Port Arthur.
The GT OmniPort site is south of Texas 73 and has plans to connect to 17 acres it owns on the Sabine-Neches Ship Channel via pipeline it will build to further expand its shipping capability.
GT OmniPort also will build four storage tanks capable of holding a quarter-million barrels of oil on site, said site general manager Bart Owens.
The grand opening drew more than 100 people – from the 40 full-time employees on site to business leaders and elected officials.
The investment thus far is about $50 million of a planned $95 million for the 1,100-acre site, which once was a chemical plant under various names for 50 years until it was closed a decade ago.
The owners of GT OmniPort, Golden Triangle Properties LLC, are in talks with international chemical manufacturers and others that could attract an additional $2.3 billion in investment to the site, said Tim DeSpain of Golden Triangle Properties.
