Page 46: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2026)

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ENERGY PORTS PORT OF CORPUS CHRISTI

Britton’s view: build a capital plan that remains viable

CAPITAL PRIORITIES: without state or federal funding, and treat grants as acceler-

CUSTOMER-LED AND FOCUSED ant — helping projects move faster or be built more robustly.

ON THROUGHPUT

Corpus Christi has funded major work through a mix of

After you complete a generational channel project, the user fees (including fees tied to the energy volumes mov- next question is always: what’s next?

Britton’s answer is practical and disciplined. Corpus ing through the system) and access to bond markets. The point isn’t the instrument; it’s maintaining the ability to

Christi is a landlord port — its customers operate the ter- minals — and the Port authority’s job is to provide the execute even when funding cycles tighten.

infrastructure and waterway reliability that makes those

AUTOMATION AND AI: operators more productive.

A “FORCE MULTIPLIER”

So the metrics that matter aren’t abstract port KPIs;

When people talk “port automation,” they often jump they’re operational outcomes: straight to container terminals — automated stacking • R educed dwell time in the overall transit cranes, autonomous yard tractors, AI-optimized gate ap- • F aster turns at berth pointment systems.

• Less demurrage from waiting offshore

Corpus Christi doesn’t operate a container terminal, but • M ore vessel calls handled per dock per year

Britton is clear-eyed about where automation can matter (through productivity and reliability)

Britton’s “customer-led” approach means the Port for a landlord port: use technology to make the waterway watches for clear demand signals before committing major more reliable, predictable, and effcient.

That includes: capital — particularly for projects that would be diffcult • T ools that reduce fog-related delays (Britton cites to repurpose. That conservative posture doesn’t mean slow; roughly 30+ fog delay days per year) it means intentional.

• B etter coordination among the many parties in-

Looking out fve to ten years, he sees priorities like dock volved in a vessel movement: pilots, tugs, agents, line han- upgrades (to fully “commercialize” the deeper channel), po- dlers, Coast Guard, harbormaster tential rail improvements and yard capacity, and the pos- • B ack-offce automation to keep the Port authority sibility of a new turning basin to handle longer vessels that itself lean and responsive can now enter the channel but may not be able to turn ef-

The most intriguing thread is predictive analytics—par- fciently in the inner harbor without additional geometry.

ticularly around shoaling and dredging cycles. If you can use sensor data and models to forecast where shoaling will

FUNDING RESILIENCE: occur and how fast, you can prioritize dredging resources

GRANTS AS ACCELERANT, NOT OXYGEN more effciently and reduce the risk of operational con-

Ports love grants, but ports also know grants can disappear.

46 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM