Chief Executive Of America’s Largest Oil Port Unexpectedly Resigns

The chief executive of the port of Corpus Christi in Texas, Sean Strawbridge, resigned this week with the announcement providing no reasons for the move, Reuters reported.

Strawbridge took the helm of the port of Corpus Christi in 2018 after serving as its chief operating officer. According to Reuters, during Strawbridge's term, the port's operating revenues expanded by 76.5% to $162.3 million.

The port of Corpus Christi is the largest export hub for U.S. crude oil. Last year, it accounted for 60% of all exports of crude oil from the country, according to research company RBN Energy.

On average, the port saw crude oil exports of 2 million barrels daily last year, up from 1.76 million bpd a year earlier. Petrochemical exports performed even better, rising by 23% on the year in 2022.

One big growth area for the largest U.S. oil export hub, however, is liquefied natural gas. Since 2020, exports of LNG via Corpus Christi have doubled to 16 million tons annually.

Cheniere Energy, the operator of the Corpus Christi LNG export terminal, plans to increase this by another 12 million annually, driven by forecasts for robust global demand for the liquefied fuel, especially from Asia and Europe.

At a recent event at the port of Corpus Christi, the chief operating officer of Cheniere Energy said that the company had filed application for another expansion of its export terminal, too, to the tune of 13 million tons of LNG annually.

According to Corey Grindal, the global LNG market would expand from the current 400 million tons annually to 700 million tons annually by 2040.

Earlier this year, Strawbridge predicted another record-breaking year for the port, after 2022 ended with record tonnage for the sixth year in a row, in part thanks to the ban on Russian oil imports, which boosted U.S. exports by 15%.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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