Corpus Christi - One Of Largest GOM Oil Refining Hubs - Faces Level 1 Water Emergency By Late 2026

[hatrack]

One of the largest petrochemical and refining hubs along the Gulf Coast is facing its most severe water shortage in history, raising concerns among industrial and residential consumers. Corpus Christi, Texas, has been under major drought restrictions since last December. And city water officials estimate they’ll reach a Level 1 water emergency late next year — a status triggered when the city has 180 days before water demand outstrips water supply.

That could lead to water curtailments for industrial users, which could cause some plants to shut down operations for the length of the curtailment, said Bob Paulison, executive director of the Coastal Bend Industry Association. “Other plants that have more flexibility and can accept some curtailment for longer periods of time, they may shut down units and parts of the plant,” Paulison said. “It depends on which plants you’re talking about and how long and how much of a curtailment there is.”

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The Gulf Coast has the capacity to refine about 10 million barrels of crude a day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration — more than 900,000 barrels of which are processed in the Corpus Christi area as of Jan. 1. Most of the water used to refine that oil comes from the city of Corpus Christi’s water system, which also serves more than 500,000 customers across a seven-county region in South Texas. Large-volume water users, which mostly include petrochemical plants and refineries, used more than 1.1 billion gallons of water in September, according to the city. That was more water than residential and commercial customers used combined.

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The two storage facilities managed by Corpus Christi Water, the city’s water provider, sat at about 11.7 percent of capacity as of Thursday, according to an online posting. (Ed. - local environmental activist Jake) Hernandez said growth in manufacturing, which includes petrochemical production and refining, has contributed to the city’s current water crisis. “These large industrial water users are driving this drought forward and making this sort of a manufactured incident, because our water consumption from our industrial users is so high,” Hernandez said. But (Ed. - Coastal Bend Industry Association Executive Director Bob) Paulison said the increases in industrial water use alone cannot explain the huge dip in output from the area’s water supply streams. When the city approved selling water to industrial users in recent years, he said, it looked like the water system could provide enough water to meet all the system’s needs.

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https://www.eenews.net/articles/water-shortage-threatens-texas-refining-hub/

[mwmisses4289]

1. Desalination plants? Reuse/recycle water they are already using?

Oh, wait, those technologies are too expensive and will cut into our ceos multibillion dollar pay packet.