On Tuesday, July 24, 2018, the Port of Corpus Christi raised $216.2 million to deepen and widen the Corpus Christi Ship Channel, as well as upcoming capital projects within the Port.
The raise of these funds comes after strong ratings reiterations received from both Moody’s Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings. Namely, Moody’s assigned an A1 Rating to the Port’s newly issued debt, while upgrading the Port’s existing debt from A1 to Aa3. S&P assigned a rating of A+ to the Port’s newly issued debt, while reaffirming the same rating for the existing debt.
Sean Strawbridge, CEO of the Port of Corpus Christi, noted:
This round of funding will help the Port of Corpus Christi further progress our ambitious yet achievable capital investment program designed to increase exports of US produced energy to our allies and trading partners around the world.
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With the expansion, the Port will be able to welcome larger vessels and more goods. According to international sources, this project is considered very important, as if it does not materialize to meet the growing demand, it could have negative consequences to the US ability to strengthen its position in the energy market.
International buyers are currently asking for more US crude. However, they are not getting it due to infrastructure limitations in the US Gulf Coast ports. These terminals have been designed for imports only recently, and are now trying to adapt their operations in order to handle exports, including accepting larger tankers.
The US is now exporting more than 2 million barrels of oil a day, but the largest tankers that are currently sailing, choose only the Louisiana offshore port, as the others are not deep enough.
