Outbound shipments of Eagle Ford Shale crude and condensate through the Port of Corpus Christi rose to 445,615 b/d in April from 289,987 b/d in April 2013, the most recent data released by the port showed.
April shipments also rose 3% month on month, from 430,829 b/d in March.
Shipments have been on the rise this year, data on the port's website showed. In January, outbound crude shipments averaged 353,192 b/d.
The amount of crude shipped inbound and outbound from the marine facility is listed in short tons in the port data. A conversion rate of 277.24 lb/barrel was used to derive the b/d rate. The conversion rate is common for a 47 API barrel of light sweet crude such as that found in the Eagle Ford Shale.
The Eagle Ford is a shale play of 20,000 square miles (12.8 million acres) about 70 miles from Corpus Christi. The port's proximity to the Eagle Ford provides a direct route for moving crude to domestic destinations on the US Gulf and East coasts, as well as Canada.
The outbound shipments of crude are mainly sent to areas between Houston, Port Arthur and New Orleans. However, there have been a few shipments to the East Coast and Canada since August 2013.
Outgoing shipments of crude rose in correlation with rising development in the Eagle Ford play.
June's Eagle Ford oil production is expected to rise 26,000 b/d compared with May's average to 1.42 million b/d, the US Energy Information Administration said in a May 12 report on drilling productivity. This translates to an expected 34% year-on-year increase of 357,000 b/d in June.
Also, new-well production per rig in the Eagle Ford is expected to total 476 b/d in June, up 18% from the same month in 2013, the EIA said in the same report.
The report said new-well production per rig is the historical estimated monthly additions from one average rig coupled with the number of total drilling rigs, as reported by Baker Hughes.
