HOUSTON | Ports/Industry Thread

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https://www.galvnews.com/news/galves...11128c6d3.html

The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation contracted Stoss Landscape Urbanism to come up with renderings of what green spaces would look like replacing the parking lots between piers 19 and 22 at the Port of Galveston.

Artist’s Rendering/Courtesy

Galveston port talks boardwalk, green space

By B. SCOTT McLENDON
The Daily News
17 hrs ago

GALVESTON

Port officials are considering ways to beautify areas in front of island cruise terminals with walkable green spaces and a boardwalk that highlight the working waterfront.

The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation contracted Stoss Landscape Urbanism to come up with renderings of what green spaces would look like replacing parking lots between piers 19 and 22 at the Port of Galveston.

The port hasn’t spent any money on the project, but officials are interested in turning the area into a boat-watching haven similar to those in other major port cities.

Galveston has an amazing working waterfront, a Stoss representative told the Wharves Board of Trustees, which governs the port, during a March presentation.

People want to go near the waterfront, but there isn’t much to do when you get there, according to Stoss.

There are few places — outside of a restaurant — to sit and watch the barges, boats and massive ships traverse the waterways.

Port officials could change that by converting the parking lots in front of Willie G’s, 2100 Harborside Drive, and Fisherman’s Wharf, 2200 Harborside Drive, into green spaces where pedestrians can walk around, sit and have a picnic, or watch the vessels at work. It’s unclear how much the project could cost.

Designers drew inspiration from waterfronts in cities like Monterrey, California, Auckland, New Zealand, and Vancouver, Canada.

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https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/...ks-ground.html

Battery chemicals producer Orion breaks ground on plant near Houston

By Jishnu Nair – Reporter, Houston Business Journal
Apr 9, 2024

Orion S.A. (NYSE: OEC), a specialty chemicals company formerly known as Orion Engineered Carbons, has broken ground on a new plant near Houston to manufacture battery ingredients.

The company, which is incorporated in Luxembourg but has its principal offices in Spring, began construction on its second plant producing acetylene-based conductive additives on April 9. When Orion announced the plant in 2022, the company said it would invest between $120 million to $140 million into the facility, which will be the first of its kind in the U.S. Orion is the sole producer of acetylene-based conductive additives in the Western Hemisphere, according to the company.

The plant will produce 12 kilotons of additives per year after operations begin in 2025. A spokesperson told the Houston Business Journal that the facility would quadruple the company’s existing production capacity following the opening of an earlier plant in France.

A neighboring site owned by Equistar Chemicals LP, a subsidiary of LyondellBasell Industries NV (NYSE: LYB), will supply the acetylene, a colorless gas widely used as a chemical building block. LyondellBasell supplies Orion's similar plant in France as well.

Orion confirmed to the HBJ that the plant will employ 30 to 40 people at full capacity. The company was unable to disclose the size of the facility but said Australia-based Worley, which has its main U.S. office in Houston, was contracted for engineering work.

“Orion is already the sole producer of acetylene-based conductive additives in Europe,” Orion CEO Corning Painter said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “Our plant in La Porte will be a pivotal step toward strengthening the regional supply of conductive additives in the rapidly growing U.S. battery market.”

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https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/a...officials-say/

Accident like tragic Baltimore bridge incident unlikely to happen at Houston ports, officials say


The tragic incident has prompted questions about whether something like that could happen in the port of Houston, and whether there’s anything that port can do to help.

Ariel Worthy
Posted On March 29, 2024, 5:17 PM

The Port of Baltimore remains closed, likely for a while after this week’s deadly collision, causing the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The tragic incident has prompted questions about whether something like that could happen in the port of Houston, and whether there’s anything that port can do to help.

Houston Matters' Michael Hagerty spoke to the executive director of the Port of Houston, Roger Guenther.

Port Houston’s chairman Ric Campo said on Tuesday during the Port Commission’s monthly meeting that Port Houston was ready to help Baltimore as much as it could. Guenther said he had reached out to the executive director of the Maryland ports but had not heard back yet.

"I’m sure they’re quite consumed, but all ports are important in the country, and you know there’s a lot of camaraderie amongst ports," Guenther said. "We all know each other and it’s usual you look at times of when ports have hurricanes and disasters, we’re all there to support one another. This is a little different, but we’ve reached out there to support any way that we can."

Guenther said ports in Maryland are an "economic driver" just as they are in the Houston area.

"All of a sudden it’s shutdown, jobs are certainly on hold for a long time because they're not working any cargo," he said. "It's very impactful to that community."

Guenther said re-routing traffic from the Maryland ports will likely not affect the Port of Houston.

"The cargo is scheduled to come and go. There’s other ports in that region. You know, that’s the main thing is the ocean carriers and the shippers are rapidly looking to go to places that are closer," he said, adding that areas like New York, Wilmington, and Norfolk are closer options for Maryland.

Guenther said the Baltimore bridge incident has caused conversations about how safety looks in Houston.

"We always are having risk management and safety at the top of our minds," Guenther said. "From what the pilots and the Coast Guard talk about, our bridge structures are pretty much isolated from something like that. But you know, we’ve got the busiest waterway in the nation and we’re putting a lot of effort into improving that Channel for safety."

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https://www.porttechnology.org/news/...-commissioner/

Port of Houston Authority appoints Port Commissioner

March 30, 2024
By Rakin Rahman

Thomas Jones, Jr., has been appointed as the Port Commissioner of the Port of Houston Authority, embarking on a two-year term.

Commissioner Jones will attend his first Port Commission meeting in this capacity on 26 March.

A host of local, state, and federal officials and business and community leaders were in attendance, showing their support for Commissioner Jones.

State Senator Carol Alvarado delivered greetings, emphasizing the importance of the Houston Ship Channel to the state, and remarked to Mayor Whitmire that “Commissioner Jones was a smart appointment.”

Commissioner Jones is a founding partner of McConnellJones, LLP, believed to be the largest African American public accounting firm in the US, and recognised as one of the largest CPA practices in the Southwestern US. Now retired, Commissioner Jones continues to serve the firm as a consultant.

Commissioner Jones has served as Chairman, President, and Director on many community boards, including among many others the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors board (past Chairman), Greater Houston Partnership, co-founder and Board President of Dominion Community Development Corporation (a church-based CDC), Houston Fund for Social Justice and Economic Equity (HEF), the Florida A&M University (FAMU) Foundation board, Jazz Houston, and Trees for Houston.

Commissioner Jones fills the seat of former Port Commissioner Cheryl Creuzot, who chose not to seek a third term.

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https://www.waterwaysjournal.net/202...bolivar-fleet/

TxDOT Adds Hybrid Ferry To Galveston-Port Bolivar Fleet

MARCH 22, 2024
BY FRANK MCCORMACK

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) unveiled the newest member of its Galveston-to-Port Bolivar ferry fleet on March 8, a hybrid-powered vehicle and passenger ferry designed by Houston-based The Shearer Group and built by Gulf Island Fabrication in Houma, La.

The 293- by 66-foot doubled-ended ferry is named for a trailblazer of Texas politics, Esperanza “Hope” Andrade, the first woman to serve as chair of the Texas Transportation Commission and the first Latina to serve as Texas’ secretary of state.

“With the christening of this vessel bearing her name, we pay homage not only to her remarkable accomplishments but also to the beacon of progress she embodies,” TxDOT stated in a press release announcing the christening.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry appointed Andrade to the Texas Transportation Commission in December 2003. She served as chair of the commission from January 2008 until May of that year. Then, in July 2008, Perry appointed Andrade secretary of state. She served in that role until November 2012. She later served as the Texas Workforce Commissioner.

The Esperanza “Hope” Andrade, or Esperanza for short, has room for 495 passengers and a maximum of 70 passenger vessels or eight 18-wheelers per trip between Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula, crossing the Houston Ship Channel in the process.

The Esperanza features a diesel-electric power generation system and a power management system for charging onboard batteries “for peak shaving to reduce fuel consumption and maximize efficiency and reliability,” according to Joshua Sebastian, vice president-operations for The Shearer Group.

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https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/...Pos=0#cxrecs_s


Image c/o Partners Real Estate

Kinder Morgan and massive industrial park owner team up for project near Houston Ship Channel

By Naomi Klinge – Reporter, Houston Business Journal
Apr 17, 2024

Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE: KMI) is working with the owner of a massive industrial park in the Houston area on a carbon storage project.

During its first-quarter 2024 earnings call April 17, the Houston-based midstream giant announced it had executed a pore space lease agreement with TGS Cedar Port Partners LP, which owns TGS Cedar Port Industrial Park, the largest master-planned, rail- and barge-served industrial park in the U.S.

The pore space spans 10,800 acres near the Houston Ship Channel and can store more than 300 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Kinder Morgan said this will give the company a geographically and geologically advantaged platform to develop carbon sequestration solutions for nearby emissions.

Permit applications for carbon dioxide sequestration in the U.S. have increased by 500% since 2021, and some big names in oil and gas are part of that growth, the Houston Business Journal previously reported. However, commercial and regulatory structures are still coming together to make projects work for both customers and suppliers of carbon capture and sequestration, Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) CEO Mike Wirth said at CERAWeek by S&P Global in Houston on March 19.

Kinder Morgan considers carbon dioxide one of its primary commodities, though earnings for its CO2 segment were down this quarter.

“CO2 business segment earnings were down compared to the first quarter of 2023, primarily due to lower CO2 sales volumes, which were down 7% on a net-to-KMI basis compared to the first quarter of 2023,” Kinder Morgan President Tom Martin said in the April 17 earnings release.

However, Martin said in the release that the prices of the other commodities — natural gas liquids and petroleum products — offset the CO2 prices.

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https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/...Pos=2#cxrecs_s

Galveston Wharves OKs contract for 1st phase of $90M cargo infrastructure work at port

By Olivia Pulsinelli – Assistant managing editor, Houston Business Journal
Apr 29, 2024

The Port of Galveston is gearing up for its latest multimillion-dollar project — this time focused on cargo rather than cruise ships.

The Galveston Wharves Board of Trustees unanimously approved a $29.9 million construction contract for Galveston-based Texas Gulf Construction Co. Inc. last week. The contract is for the first phase of an estimated $90 million in cargo infrastructure expansion and improvement work, the port's first major cargo infrastructure improvement project in decades.

Texas Gulf Construction is expected to begin work this summer to enclose and fill a slip at Pier 38/39, the Galveston Wharves said in an April 26 press release. Also this summer, the board expects to award the work for the next two phases, which consists of a $50.1 million project to enclose and fill a slip at Pier 40/41.

The projects also include the addition of a new 1,426-foot-long berth from Pier 38/39 to Pier 40/41. Future phases will include paving and other improvements.

Also this summer, a decommissioned grain elevator at Pier 30/33 will be demolished to use the site for cargo handling and laydown. Bids are expected to be let in May, and work is scheduled to be complete by the end of 2025. The concrete rubble from the demolition also is slated to be used to help fill the slips.

Filling the two slips and demolishing the grain elevator will add almost 30 acres to the West Port cargo area.

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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...t-19420329.php

Port Houston awarded $26.9 million, mostly for electric trucks for cargo yard
By Dug Begley,
Staff writer
Updated April 24, 2024 1:28 p.m.

Thirty new electric trucks are coming to Port Houston as part of a federal program aimed at reducing pollution around America's ports.

Transportation officials announced Wednesday that Port Houston would receive $26.9 million for new short-haul trucks, portable chargers and other upgrades at the cargo center.

“Investing in our ports to improve air quality and reduce pollution while modernizing infrastructure and strengthening supply chains is not only the right thing but also the smart thing," said Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, who represents the areas west of the port. "What we are doing here is not only environmental justice but will help to transform the lives of thousands of workers and lay the groundwork for a brighter, more resilient future for our port."

The award was the second largest of $148 million announced as part of the Reduction of Truck Emissions at Port Facilities Grant Program.

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https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/...Pos=0#cxrecs_s

Chevron details plans to integrate Bayou Bend CCS with HyVelocity hydrogen hub

By Naomi Klinge – Reporter, Houston Business Journal
May 1, 2024

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) is preparing to integrate its Bayou Bend carbon capture and storage project near Beaumont and Port Arthur with the massive HyVelocity hydrogen hub across the Texas Gulf Coast.

At an event detailing a new report from the National Petroleum Council on scaling up hydrogen, Austin Knight, Chevron’s vice president of hydrogen, told media that integrating carbon capture and hydrogen on the Texas Gulf Coast would make sense for both sectors.

“We're a partner in the Bayou Bend carbon storage project, and this is basically between Houston and Port Arthur, both onshore and offshore. So for us, it makes a lot of sense then to integrate the development of hydrogen into that carbon storage solution in Bayou Bend,” Knight said.

The Bayou Bend CCS project is a joint venture between Chevron, TotalEnergies SE (NYSE: TTE) and Equinor ASA (NYSE: EQNR), with capacity to store 1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide underground.

Meanwhile, the HyVelocity Hub brought seven industry partners with Houston presences — AES Corp. (NYSE: AES), Air Liquide, Chevron, Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), Mitsubishi Power Americas, Ørsted and Sempra Infrastructure — and other academic, nonprofit and industry partners together to present the Texas Gulf Coast as a candidate for a piece of the up to $8 billion in hydrogen hub funding the Department of Energy offered. HyVelocity was one of seven projects selected by the DOE, and the team will negotiate with the federal government for up to $1.2 billion in funding.

Knight said he and the National Petroleum Council do not anticipate repurposing much existing natural gas infrastructure for use in the hydrogen ecosystem — though he said the existing infrastructure in Houston makes it an ideal location for the projects — so new hydrogen and carbon dioxide pipelines will be vital to building out low-carbon-intensity hydrogen.

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https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/...l-effects.html

Port of Houston reopens, weathers little effects from Hurricane Beryl

By Naomi Klinge – Reporter, Houston Business Journal
Jul 10, 2024

Although the Port of Houston was closed for more than two days, the major export hub seemed to fair pretty well when Category 1 Hurricane Beryl came though Houston on Monday, July 8.

The U.S. Coast Guard put the ports of Houston, Galveston, Freeport and Texas City in Port Condition Zulu, effective at 4 p.m. Sunday, July 7, which meant that no vessels could enter the ports without special permission, and all other vessel movements were prohibited. Waterfront operations, such as cargo and bunkering operations, also were required to stop.

On the evening of Tuesday, July 9, the Coast Guard put the Houston and Galveston ports into Port Condition Recovery, which means the storm was no longer a threat to the area.

The Port of Houston Authority, also known as Port Houston, said the eight public terminals it operates resumed operations Tuesday evening for vessel operations and returned to normal start times for truck gate operations Wednesday morning.

For now, Port Houston is offering extended hours at its two container terminals.

Adam Yanelli, senior reporter at data and research firm ICIS, told the Houston Business Journal that the economic impacts of the port’s closure should be minimal, given that shipments were simply delayed, not cancelled. He added that Port Houston’s extension of terminal hours will help get things back on track.

However, Yanelli said that if a business is operating on a tight supply chain, it could be disrupted with a few days of delay.

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https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/...Pos=1#cxrecs_s

Port of Galveston resumes cruises, cargo operations after Beryl (updated)

By Kyle R. Cotton – Reporter, Houston Business Journal
Jul 9, 2024
Updated Jul 10, 2024 10:14am CDT

Update: The Port of Galveston resumed cargo operations on Wednesday, July 10.

The original story from Tuesday, July 9, appears below.

After contending with Hurricane Beryl on Monday, the Port of Galveston is partially resuming operations on Tuesday, July 9.

Harborside Drive and other roadways to the port are now passable, according to an update from Rodger Rees, Galveston Wharves port director and CEO. However, power remains out for some areas of the port and city, so port administration offices are still closed Tuesday.

"Port of Galveston staff and port partners are working diligently to safely open the port for business after Hurricane Beryl struck the area the morning of Monday, July 8. … Port vessel operations remain suspended with case-by-case considerations based on hydrographic surveys of Galveston Harbor and port berths to assure navigable depths," Rees said.

The Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas arrived at the port at 1 p.m. Tuesday to debark. Beryl delayed the ship's return by one day, according to Royal Caribbean Group Chief Meteorologist Craig Setzer.

Passengers for the next cruise are asked to wait until 4 p.m. to arrive and will embark at 8 p.m., Rees said. Future Royal Caribbean Cruise Line sailings will return to the company's regular schedule.

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https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/...ane-beryl.html

Freeport LNG yet to announce reopening after Hurricane Beryl; chemical co. declares force majeure


By Naomi Klinge – Reporter, Houston Business Journal
Jul 11, 2024

As the impacts of Hurricane Beryl are still being assessed and neighborhoods are still waiting to regain power across the greater Houston area, Houston-based Freeport LNG has yet to announce a return to normal operations.

Given its location on the coast and proximity to Matagorda, Freeport LNG ramped down its production ahead of the storm. The company said on July 7 it had implemented its hurricane response plan and intends “to resume operations once it is safe to do so after this weather event.”

As of July 11, the company said it has no further comment, and that the July 7 statement stands.

Freeport LNG is capable of producing more than 15 million tons of liquefied natural gas per year across three liquefaction trains, making up around 2.2 billion cubic feet of exports per day. That's 17% of the nation's total LNG export capacity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Although it is not clear if Freeport LNG lost power during the hurricane, over 1 million people are still without power across the region, and at least 500,000 CenterPoint Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNP) customers are likely to be without power into next week.