OTC Number 1828 Paper "A North Atlantic Deep-Water Terminal.
Reference is made to a Study on "Offshore Terminal System Concepts" completed in September 1972 for the U.S. Maritime Commission. General conclusions are briefly presented. The Northeast U.S.is identified as the area most urgently requiring a deep-water marine terminal to handle crude oil to meet the energy crisis. A conceptual design is presented of a terminal located off the Delaware Bay for trans-shipping crude oil and later solid bulks.
The U.S. Maritime Administration authorized a study to be performed by Soros Associates in 1971 entitled, "Offshore Terminal System Concepts", the results of which were released in September 1972.
One of the first conclusions reached was that VLCC's cannot be accommodated at any of the existing ports on the East and Gulf Coasts. Another general conclusion was that foreign crude oil imports in VLCC's to the North Atlantic Region represent the primary national need, with similar but somewhat less critical needs existing for the Gulf and West Coast areas. The technical, environmental and political conditions at the Gulf and West Coast locations are generally favorable and indications are that the type of facilities envisioned will soon be realized. Unfortunately, the problems on the East Coast are more complex and difficult to solve.
The existing oil refinery capacity in the North Atlantic region is about 75 million tons per year. The crude oil for these refineries is supplied primarily by tanker, partly from the Gulf region with the remainder from foreign sources. As crude oil production declines while demand increases in the Gulf Region, coastwise shipments will gradually diminish and eventually stop, leaving the North Atlantic refinery feed entirely to foreign imports. The East Coast demand by the late seventies is estimated at about 200 million tons per year increasing by the mid eighties to over 300 million tons per year. The capacities of the existing refineries in the East could be expanded to 200million tons, but the 300 million ton level would require major new grass- roots refinery development. In recent years, no firm has been successful 'in the East in obtaining the necessary approvals to develop such new refineries.
Importing crude at the 200 million tons per year level represents a more than800 percent increase in throughput compared to 1970 imports. A great number of 40,000 DWT to 60,000 DWT tankers navigating long distances in busy and restricted channels through congested harbor traffic all the way to Philadelphia or up the Kill Van Ku11 in New York would pose a serious environmental risk.
The use of these relatively small tankers under these circumstances combines maximum risk with maximum potential environmental damage.
