The plug on plans for a large offshore crude oil receiving terminal in the US Gulf of Mexico has been pulled.
Houston-based Enterprise Products Partners and TEPPCO O/S Port System, an affiliate of TEPPCO Partners, have jointly withdrawn from the Texas Offshore Port System (TOPS) partnership in a disagreement with the third partner, an affiliate of Oiltanking Holdings America.
In August 2008, affiliates of Enterprise, TEPPCO, and Oiltanking Holding Americas collaborated to design, construct, own, and operate a new Texas offshore crude oil port and pipeline system for delivering waterborne crude to refining centers along the upper Texas Gulf Coast.
TOPS was to include an offshore port, two onshore storage facilities with about 5.1 million bbl of crude storage capacity, and an associated 160-mile, 1.8 million b/d pipeline.
Total cost of the project was estimated at $1.8 billion (1.37 billion).
Enterprise and TEPPCO each relinquishes its one-third interest, forfeits its initial investment, and has taken a one-time non-cash charge of $34 million against second-quarter 2009 earnings.
