LOOP Crude Deliveries Hold Steady

Crude deliveries to Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), the only deep-water U.S. oil port and a major conduit for the country's crude oil imports, will hold steady at stronger levels in November. LOOP unloads more than 900,000 bpd of imported crude oil from tankers in the Gulf of Mexico and over 300,000 bpd of domestically produced crude oil from the offshore Mars platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Speculation that November LOOP throughputs might fall because refiners would be able to use oil secured in the U.S. government's release of crude from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) did not materialize.

The terminal, located 20 miles south of Grand Isle, La., is linked to a 50-million barrel onshore storage facility that supplies refineries in Louisiana, Texas and the Midwest.