January, 2020 [Hydrocarbon Engineering] – Sentinel Midstream LLC, through its subsidiary Texas GulfLink LLC, recently announced its alignment with Freepoint Commodities LLC in furtherance of the construction, operation, and utilisation of Texas GulfLink.

 
Texas GulfLink is a deep water crude oil export facility that will be located off the coast of Freeport, Texas, US, and will be capable of fully loading very large crude carrier (VLCC) vessels.

Texas GulfLink will include an onshore oil storage terminal connected by a 42 in. pipeline to a manned offshore platform approximately 30 miles off the Gulf Coast. From the platform, the oil will be transported to two single point mooring buoys to allow for VLCCs to receive 2 million bbl of crude oil with loading rates up to 85 000 bbl/hour. Designed around safety, the offshore platform will have around-the-clock monitor-ing, which will provide shippers with a safe and reliable mooring operation for VLCCs and other crude carrier vessels.

Sentinel Midstream President and CEO, Jeff Ballard said: “We are pleased with the additional level of commercial support that Freepoint’s involvement will provide to Texas GulfLink. As the project continues to move forward with the deepwater crude oil license application process, Sentinel is excited that Freepoint has chosen to align with Texas GulfLink and will utilise their substantial global and commercial resources to create value for their customers […] through their Asian market focus, Freepoint will lead efforts to meet the growing demand from Asian refineries for US produced crude oil.”

Freepoint CEO David Messer said: “Freepoint recognises the significant experience that the Texas GulfLink team has in deep water port projects and the team’s ability to construct and operate to the highest standards […] the Texas GulfLink project will help to meet the demands of customers who have to reliably source US crude oil through a neutral infrastructure export option.”

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