First rule of business: It’s all about location, location, location.
Well, with that established, it’d be hard to imagine a better spot for Pin Oak Holdings to build a state-of-the-art liquid and chemicals terminal than the 431 acres it picked along the Mississippi River near the Port of South Louisiana.
Once it’s completed – target date is around summertime 2017 – the Pin Oak Terminals will be the new gold standard for all subsequent storage facilities around the globe to match.
Equipped to handle 10 million barrels of crude oil, refined products and chemicals, the site provides direct transportation access to rail, unit train, pipeline and barge on the property.
“It’s an exciting time,” says C. Michael Reed, CEO of Pin Oak Terminals. “We’ve started the foundation on the first four tanks and have multiple bids out to contractors for all phases of the buildout. The whole facility has been diagramed to meet customer demand. It’s adaptable to the needs of different customers or customers that do business in multiple products. They have needs that need to be met. Using the latest, greatest technology, we feel this facility will do just that.
“In the end, what our clients are looking for is a place that ensures good quality of their products in storage,” Reed continued, later. “They want to maintain inventory records and control losses. And they’re looking for ways to cut logistics costs – for a facility capable of handling multi-loads, or load products at high rates, or provide solutions for them to change the product in a tank very easily.”
Located at mile marker 144.1 of the Mississippi River, Pin Oak Terminals will have two Aframax ship and connecting barge docks located along the deepest sections of the water, perfectly suited to reach export markets. A total of 11 pipelines that carry multiple products run through the grounds, as do two Class I railroads. The expansiveness of the Pin Oak property could allow for the construction of a full unit-train loop, which would permit the handling of two unit-trains without clogging up use of the railroad’s mainline.
Once completed and fully staffed, Pin Oaks will offer tenants a menu of services including but not limited to offloading, storage, heating, blending and transfer of crude oil, refined products, VGO, NAPTHA, base oils, chemicals, ethanol and vegoil.
“The biggest strength of a facility is its modal capability. There’s no question,” Reed says. “And being in St. John Parish and on the river with the rail and the pipelines running right through our property, we’ll achieve that – that will be our strength.”
Pin Oak Terminal will sit less than a 30 minute drive from four oil refineries with an output capacity of 1.3 million barrels of crude. And while that proximity is certainly a benefit, the facility isn’t completely dependent upon it. In fact, investors believe Pin Oak Terminals will be viable during swings of the economic climate because of its ability to handle a diverse catalog of literal liquid assets, such as crude oil, refined products and commodity chemicals. For businesses that dip into all of those products, Reed says Pin Oak can be “a one-stop shop for all their needs.”
“It’s rewarding to see an opportunity like this start from the ground up and form into an actual operation. Now, it’s also very hectic and very intense,” Reed says. “And the job is not over once construction is complete and the barrels are store. Because then you have to operate in a safe, efficient way that meets and exceeds the customer’s expectations. So when this place is fully operational, that’s not the end. Really, that’s just the beginning.”
By William Kalec
