Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Developer Withdraws Port of LA Oil Terminal Project


After almost a decade of planning, oil logistics company Plains All American Pipeline has dropped its plans to build a $500 million oil tanker terminal at the Port of Los Angeles.

The company, which is headquartered in Houston but has a branch office in Long Beach, cited economics in an announcement posted on the company’s website.

“A number of factors contributed to the uncertainties with respect to financial returns and the determination not to proceed with the project, including project delays, the economic downturn, regulatory and permitting matters, a challenging refining environment in California and an industry shift in the outlook for availability of domestic crude oil,” the announcement reads in part.

The Pacific LA Marine Terminal Pier 400 project, which was initiated in 2003, called for construction of a new berth at the Port of Los Angeles’ Pier 400, Berth 408, as well as 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 have be offloaded from tankers into the storage tanks and pumped to local refineries.
The company says that despite the failure of this project, it will remain a provider of crude oil, refined products and natural gas liquids infrastructure in California and that it plans to continue to develop and build energy infrastructure.