Country : USALoop worldport

worldport Introduction
Welcome to the LOOP LLC web site. Our web site is intended to provide the reader with historical and real-time information about the Louisiana Offshore Oil worldport.

LOOP LLC is a Limited Liability Company whose primary business is offloading foreign crude oil from tankers, storing crude oil, and transworldporting crude oil via connecting pipelines to refineries throughout the Gulf Coast and Midwest. LOOP is also the storage and terminalling facility for the MARS pipeline system and its supply of offshore Gulf of Mexico crude oil.

worldport History
(Louisiana Offshore Oil worldport) was organized in 1972 as a Delaware corporation and converted to a limited liability company in 1996. Marathon Pipe Line LLC, Murphy Oil Corporation, and Shell Oil Company are LOOP's owners.

The worldport facility is located in the Gulf of Mexico, eighteen miles south of Grand Isle, Louisiana, in 110 feet of water. LOOP is the only worldport in the U.S. capable of offloading deep draft tankers known as Ultra Large Crude Carriers (ULCC) and Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC). Along with offloading crude from VLCC, LOOP also offloads smaller tankers.

The worldport consists of three single-point mooring buoys used for the offloading of crude tankers and a marine terminal consisting of a two-level pumping platform and a three-level control platform. The onshore oil storage facility, twenty-five miles inland. It provides interim storage for crude oil before it is delivered via connecting pipelines to refineries on the Gulf Coast and in the Midwest.

The oil is stored in eight underground caverns leached out of a naturally occurring salt dome. The caverns are capable of storing approximately 50 million barrels of crude oil (a barrel of oil is equal to 42 U.S. gallons). In 1996, one cavern was dedicated to the MARS stream coming in from the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The MARS crude oil system uses the same distribution system used by the foreign barrels. In addition, LOOP has an above-ground tank farm consisting of six 600,000 barrel tanks.

Four pipelines connect the onshore storage facility to refineries in Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast. LOOP also operates the 53-mile, 48-inch LOCAP pipeline that connects LOOP to CAPLINE at St. James, Louisiana. CAPLINE is a 40-inch pipeline that transworldports crude oil to several Midwest refineries.

LOOP is connected to over 50 percent of the U.S. refinery capacity and has offloaded over 7 billion barrels of foreign crude oil since it's inception.

Mission
LOOP's vision is to be universally recognized as the preferred facility for receiving, storing and delivering crude oil through superior quality of operations and by maximizing opworldportunities for expanded services to our customers.

We will strive to accomplish this vision by conducting our business ethically and with integrity to meet our responsibilities to our owners, customers/shippers, employees, contractors, communities and the general public. We will endeavor to fully understand our customers' needs and utilize flexible, innovative measures to meet those needs while building long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.

While endeavoring to do so, we will maintain our core values of:
Safety and protection of the environment
Reliability of processes and systems
Competitive pricing for quality services
Value-added and responsive customer service
An exceptional and empowered workforce
Responsible citizenship within the community

Pollution
Discharge of oil or oily slops into the sea is Strictly forbidden. LOOP has no facilities for receiving any oil residues or oily ballast water. Tankers wishing to offload such substances must do so elsewhere. Tankers that release oil or oily ballast water either at the SPM or in the anchorage area will be held responsible for all cleanup costs. The United States Coast Guard regulations concerning water discharges at sea are contained in 33 CFR 157.25 to 157.49. Regulations in 33 CFR 159.7 require an operable marine sanitation device aboard all vessels in United States waters. For purposes of these regulations, the LOOP Safety Zone is considered United States waters.

Safety
LOOP maintains a vigorous safety program. The Mooring Master will discuss and review LOOP's safety requirements and procedures with tanker's Master and Chief Officer before cargo discharge begins. Coast Guard Inspectors will board all foreign vessels at least annually to ensure compliance with applicable federal regulations.

Drug and Alcohol
It is LOOP's belief that the use of drugs or alcohol impairs employee performance and creates unsafe working conditions, thereby posing dangers to personnel and to the environment. LOOP is committed to maintaining a productive and safe working environment. To that end, all LOOP employees and employees of contractors performing services for LOOP are required to be drug and alcohol free and are not permitted to consume or have in their possession any alcohol or drugs while on LOOP's premises. For this policy's purpose, the Safety Zone is considered to be LOOP's premises. Masters, whose ships are in the Safety Zone, are required to follow LOOP's policy concerning the use and/or consumption of alcohol and drugs by crew members, thus contributing to a safer discharge.