About Us

Oil is the most important energy source in the world today, and it is an essential element of our nation’s prosperity. Oil products fuel our cars, trucks, airplanes, and factories, and oil also heats and cools our homes. As the world’s largest consumer of petroleum products, the United States relies on a steady supply of crude oil to produce products we use on a daily basis.

LOOP plays a key role in meeting those daily energy needs. LOOP has received and offloaded over twelve billion barrels of foreign and domestically produced crude oil since its inception. We are the single largest point of entry for waterborne crude oil coming into the U.S.

LOOP receives, offloads and temporarily stores crude oil supplies from three sources:
Tankers carrying foreign and domestic crude oil
Domestic crude oil produced in the Gulf of Mexico

The Zydeco Pipeline moves domestic crude produced in the U.S. and the Gulf of Mexico

LOOP was organized in 1972 as a Delaware corporation and converted to a limited liability company in 1996. LOOP is a joint venture of Marathon Pipe Line LLC, Shell Oil Company, and Valero Terminalling and Distribution Company.

LOOP is the only port in the U.S. capable of offloading a wide range of vessels including Ultra Large Crude Carriers (ULCC) and Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) down to Medium Range (MR) Tankers.

The port consists of three single-point mooring buoys used for the offloading and loading of crude tankers and a marine terminal consisting of a two-level pumping platform and a recently replaced three-level control platform. The Clovelly Hub is located twenty-five miles inland, and is connected to the port complex by a 48-inch diameter pipeline. The Clovelly Hub provides interim storage for crude oil before it is delivered via connecting pipelines to refineries on the Gulf Coast and in the Midwest.