A consortium of oil pipeline and storage companies plans to invest $1.8 billion to build the United States' second deepwater oil import terminal in Texas, the companies said on Monday.

The terminal would be the second facility in the United States capable of handling the largest oil tankers, known in the industry as very large crude carriers (VLCCs).

Enterprise Products Partners LP, TEPPCO Partners LP and privately held Oiltanking will each take a one-third stake in the project, to be called the Texas Offshore Port System.

The project will be able to deliver up to 1.8 million barrels per day of oil to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast. The port would also include storage for 5.1 million barrels of oil.

Tankers would dock with a floating buoy located in the Gulf of Mexico 36 miles from Freeport, Texas. A new 85-mile pipeline system would connect the buoy with storage facilities in Texas City and Port Arthur, Texas.

Exxon Mobil Corp and the Motiva refining joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Saudi Aramco signed up to take 725,000 bpd of import capacity at the new terminal, the partners said.

The United States is expected to become increasingly reliant on oil imported on VLCCs as both domestic and nearby foreign sources of oil, such as Mexico and Venezuela, are declining.

Currently only the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port is capable of handling VLCCs. Importers seeking to bring oil cargo to Texas ports, such as Houston and Port Arthur, must offload their cargo onto smaller vessels, increasing costs and the risk of spills.

Reuters.