Energy Companies Finding Smaller Texas Ports

The Houston Ship Channel and its largest port, the Port of Houston, have attracted billions of dollars in investment and many companies. The result is soaring real estate prices, and few tracts of land available for development. The result? Energy companies, including Phillips 66, Occidental Petroleum and natural gas exporter Cheniere Energy, are setting their sights on ports in Freeport, Brownsville and Corpus Christi, TX.

Dwindling space is only one reason for the shift. Another is length. Port Freeport, for example, is less than eight miles from the deep-water sea buoy in the Gulf of Mexico. The Houston Ship Channel is more than 50 miles long from tip through Galveston Bay. Meanwhile, the Port of Brownsville is leasing land for less than $6,000 per acre, per year. Similar land along the Houston Ship Channel goes for $60,000 per acre, per year.

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