BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Why Brownsville and Why Now? Those were two questions posed by Tracye McDaniel, president of TIP Strategies, at a YTexas conference held recently at The Livery Venue in downtown Brownsville.
McDaniel was moderator for a panel about energy. The panelists were William Dietrich, CEO of the Port of Brownsville, and Tom Ramsey, COO of America First Refining. AFP is looking to build a multi-billion oil refinery at the port. It would be the first new oil refinery in the U.S. for 50 years.
Dietrich answered the question first. He said growth currently underway at the Port of Brownsville is not happening by accident. He said expansion plans were developed several years ago.
“The Port of Brownsville is the foundation. A lot of us don't look at the foundation (of a home), but really the Port of Brownsville, all the economic development and everything that we were doing, that's what we build upon, and we continue to build upon,” Dietrich said.
Dietrich said it is fascinating to look back at newspapers 100 years ago, to see how the Port of Brownsville was created.
“The original mission statement was to connect the Rio Grande Valley to global markets. So, it has taken 100 years, and we have prospered over the years. But we haven't prospered like we are right now,” Dietrich said.
“So, I think, in short, it's our time. I think there's a combination of many groups here in this room that I have the privilege of working with every day that help us and help as a force multiplier for us to be successful.”
In his response to McDaniel’s question, Ramsey said his company started leasing land at the Port of Brownsville in 2014. He said among the advantages the Port of Brownsville possessed was land.
“A lot of deep-water ports don't have any land available. The ship traffic (here) is much less,” Ramsey said. “You have a shorter journey if you are taking (product) by ship to South America and also, building a refinery on the border of Mexico, where you've got a country that's importing at least a million barrels a day, or 42 million gallons a day of refined products, and a lot of it in this northern Mexico corridor, it just seemed like a very logical place for it, especially since we're designing a refinery that will only process West Texas American Crude.”
Dietrich said the best decision the Brownsville Navigation District commissioners made was to deepen the ship channel from 42 feet to 52 feet.
“That is an infrastructure milestone that the Port of Brownsville has been working on for a long time. We should be done in its entirety, probably in September,” Dietrich said.
“We are already done with Section A, the Port of Brownsville section. You have to remember that this is a half a billion-dollar project. It would not have been done without a private-public partnership. For our channel deepening, over $400 million was provided by NextDecade, our private partner (otherwise known as) Rio Grande LNG,” Dietrich said. “We will be forever grateful for that type of investment into our community.”
Editor's Note: Here is a video recording of the Dietrich-Ramsey panel discussion in full:
