FACT: The crude oil transported on our pipeline has many potential destinations, domestic and waterborne.

When the Bayou Bridge Pipeline is put into service, it will transport up to 480,000 barrels per day of crude oil from storage facilities in Lake Charles, Louisiana to St. James, Louisiana.  At St. James, shippers have multiple refining options along Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, where the oil will be processed to produce gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil and refined petroleum products, among things. 

A typical 42-gallon barrel of crude oil yields about 20 gallons of gasoline and 4 gallons of jet fuel. The remaining 18 gallons of crude oil once refined into petrochemicals are used in one of the estimated 6,000 products that surround us every day including detergent, fertilizers, and synthetic clothes and shoes, and plastic—a critical component to our antiseptic model of medicine.

Like most commodities, refined petroleum products are bought and sold in a global marketplace. Exports enhance economic efficiency, boost economic growth, and reduce the U.S. trade deficit. So it is just as likely that any products that may be exported will come back to us in another form of goods we use every day.