Page 47: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2026)

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“[Clients of the port] all want the same thing. They want ease in and out of the waterway, quick time to their dock, as little time on their dock as possible, and then getting back out of here because shipping is incredibly expensive right now. We heard numbers to the tune of $13 million to charter a VLCC, for example, from here going to the far east. That’s an astronomical number.

So quick in, efficient loading, quick out is important to them.” – Kent Britton, CEO of the Port of Corpus Christi straints emerging unexpectedly. grading docks and associated infrastructure so customers

Britton described the Port’s push toward a digital twin— can consistently capture the benefts of 54 feet.

a model that can integrate weather, resilience, shoaling, 2. A ttract new business that diversifes the portfo- and operational data into a decision-support layer. For a lio—without losing focus on what the Port does best.

gateway moving energy cargo at scale, shaving uncertainty 3. K eep existing customers moving faster and is often as valuable as shaving minutes. cheaper, reducing friction that costs real money at today’s charter and demurrage rates.

ENVIRONMENT, RESILIENCE, AND THE 4. B uild the systems and maintenance discipline to

REALITY OF THE GULF COAST make infrastructure last not just decades, but a century.

Corpus Christi sits in a hurricane zone and operates in That last point is easy to overlook. Growth makes head- a regulatory environment where air quality, water quality, lines. But ports, at their best, are built for longevity—as- and habitat are not optional considerations. sets maintained, modernized, and made resilient enough

Britton rejects the idea that doing things “the right way” to serve industries that will evolve in ways nobody can per- environmentally must be in confict with competitiveness. fectly predict.

In his view, strong standards and smart planning reduce In Corpus Christi, the channel is deeper, the pathway is risk, protect the community, and help sustain the operat- wider, and the Port has positioned itself to be more than ing license that ports ultimately depend on. a benefciary of the last decade’s energy boom. The next

Resilience also has an operational dimension: if the Port chapter will be written in how well it converts that new can anticipate disruptions and plan maintenance and capi- waterway capability into sustained industrial competitive- tal improvements proactively, it becomes a more depend- ness—through disciplined capital, smart technology, and a able link in global supply chains—especially in energy, relentless focus on the customers who turn a ship channel where reliability translates to strategic value. into an engine of national economic and strategic power.

If you want a simple takeaway, Britton offered it in his

MEASURING SUCCESS own way: stay in the lane—or, in Corpus Christi terms,

Britton’s defnition of success is both operational and stay in the channel—and make the channel the best, safest, strategic: most effcient route possible. Because when you do that at 1. F ully commercialize the deeper channel by up- scale, everything else follows.

MARCH/APRIL 2026 OFFSHORE ENGINEER 47