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Sentinel Midstream says conditions for government license

are

straightforward

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Trump administration supports faster project approvals for

energy industry

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Texas GulfLink aims to complement Corpus Christi export

facilities

By Arathy Somasekhar

HOUSTON, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Oil transportation and

storage company Sentinel Midstream expects to make a final

investment decision on its deepwater oil export project off the

Texas coast as soon as it receives a U.S. government license,

CEO Jeff Ballard told Reuters.

The move comes as U.S. President Donald Trump pushes for

faster approvals of projects that will help bolster the U.S.

energy industry, including fossil fuel production.

As part of that push, Sentinel's Texas GulfLink project

was issued a record of decision, a major step in the permitting

process, on Friday by the Trump administration.

The record of decision approved the project with conditions.

Sentinel must meet state and federal and other requirements to

receive a license to begin construction.

The offshore project, expected to be situated about 30.5

miles off Freeport, Texas, aims to be able to fully load a

supertanker with about 2 million barrels of oil in a day.

Currently only one U.S. port, the Louisiana Offshore Oil

Port, can fully load supertankers. Other facilities can only

load a supertanker partially due to draft restrictions,

requiring them to use smaller ships to ferry crude to the larger

vessel to fill it.

"If commercial discussions proceed as we expect them to,

then our final investment decision timeline should coincide with

the receipt of the license," Ballard said in an interview on

Wednesday. He declined to provide a specific timeline.

The last U.S. deepwater project, Enterprise Products

Partners' ( EPD ) Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT), took just over

17 months from record of decision to license under the

administration of former president Joe Biden, which was less

supportive of energy development than the Trump administration.

"The conditions in the record of decision are pretty clear

and straightforward, nothing was surprising, which is great,"

Ballard said.

Sentinel's upbeat outlook comes days after rival Enterprise

said it had not received enough customer interest to

commercialize its SPOT crude export project, blaming regulatory

delays and a shift in global oil flows after Russia's invasion

of Ukraine.

U.S. crude exports also eased for the first time last year

since the COVID-19 pandemic, raising concerns that the country's

oil export volumes may have peaked.

The relatively low total project cost of Texas GulfLink

gives it an economic advantage to offer competitive rates and

term flexibility to customers, Ballard said. He declined to

disclose the estimated project cost.

Prices for exporting from Texas GulfLink will likely also be

competitive with facilities in Ingleside near Corpus Christi in

South Texas, Ballard said. Corpus Christi is currently the top

U.S. oil export region.

"We kind of view Corpus Christi export facilities as a

separate market. We don't believe it's an us versus them. We see

the future where it's us with them," Ballard said.

DRILL, BABY, EXPORT

While Trump has called for higher oil production, energy

executives have forecast slowing growth as they focus on capital

discipline, which could impact the availability of export

volumes.

Ballard, however, said he was bullish on production growth.

"The new administration is being very strong on American

energy dominance and putting that as one of their core focal

points - I think that is to our benefit," Ballard said.

"You're going to see more certainty in the market towards

making long-term investments in American oil and gas," he added.

Ballard also said he expects to see some U.S. crude oil

flows shift to Asia as the administration works to resolve the

conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Asia's share of U.S. crude exports declined to 38% in 2024

from 43% in 2019 as Russia's invasion of Ukraine and ensuing

sanctions on Russian oil pushed U.S. barrels to Europe. Crude to

Europe can be shipped economically in smaller tankers, while

increased demand from Asia would lead to higher usage of

supertankers, targeted by Texas GulfLink.