Railroads and pipelines may have grabbed more petroleum transportation headlines the past few years, but the US maritime system needs attention too.
For starters, the US still imports a significant amount of crude oil that needs to move efficiently to refineries, an American Petroleum Institute official noted on Apr. 12.
Almost half of all US imports and exports are delivered through ports and waterways, API said. It said petroleum or its products represent 41% of all US waterborne trade, and 40% of all crude arriving at refineries comes via water.
"Silting and settlement at the bottom of waterways creates problems," said Robin Rorick, API's midstream and industry operations group director. "We're already starting to see impacts where companies have to light-load, and fewer lanes are available."
Some locks and dams are 50 years old, Rorock told reporters during a conference at API's headquarters. "They're like any other regularly moving equipment that needs to be maintained," he said, adding, "Fortunately, our products get priority because refineries are running full-out and crude deteriorates if it sits under the hot sun in a tanker too long."
US President Barack Obama signed the 2014 Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRTTA) into law that year. It attempted to consolidate and expedite feasibility studies, accelerate Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) project application approvals, and give ACE authority to accept funds from nonfederal entities in certain cases.
Now, said Rorick, the White House's Office of Management and Budget has proposed a budget that would cut funding for crucial inland waterways projects. It's up to Congress to ensure that funds from fees paid by users are used to maintain the system as intended, he said.
Changing traffic patterns
"This is a crucial element of our industry's ability to compete," Rorick said. "In about 6 years, we've seen our traffic flow on the Mississippi River reverse as more crude and products move south to the Gulf Coast for transportation to other terminals and refineries. More railroad trans-loading facilities exist now."
Several waterway project completion dates that moved forward after WRTTA originally was passed in 2014 are in danger of being deferred, Rorick said.
API said that even if Congress can meet WRTTA's proposed targets, most will still take 10-20 years to complete. Some projects could be pushed back more than 60 years if targets aren't met, it warned.
API has joined agriculture and other US industries that rely on waterways to move goods and products to create more public interest in the problem, Rorick said.
"We consider the ability to move crude and products efficiently as big a security issue as maintaining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve," he said.
Nick Snow
NICK SNOW covered oil and gas in Washington for more than 30 years. He worked in several capacities for The Oil Daily and was founding editor of Petroleum Finance Week before joining OGJ as its Washington correspondent in September 2005 and becoming its full-time Washington editor in October 2007. He retired from OGJ in January 2020.
