The port of Corpus Christi has shipped more than 50% of total US crude oil exports in the last two months. According to the US Census Bureau, Corpus Christi shipped 1.86 million bpd or 57.03% of US crude exports in August and 1.65 million bpd or 50.97% in September. Meanwhile, crude exports at Houston stood at 638,000 bpd (15.62%) in August and 506,000 bpd (19.6%) in September. Crude exports via Houston began to trend lower in the third quarter of 2019 when new pipeline projects boosted oil flows from the Permian Basin to Corpus Christi.
These new pipelines decrease the transportation costs to ship oil from west Texas to Corpus Christi to as low as 26 cents/barrel. At the same time, price spreads for WTI in the Houston area, and Midland narrowed due to reduced refinery throughputs at the US Gulf Coast. Producers have been shipping crude to Corpus Christi because the transportation fees are cheaper and it loads cargoes at comparable prices to FOB Houston.
