US logistics firm to build Gulf Coast oil hub

[HOUSTON] To capitalise on a flood of domestic and Canadian crude into the US Gulf Coast, logistics giant Kinder Morgan Energy Partners is spending more than US$1.5 billion in Houston to build the most flexible oil and fuel transport hub in the country.

The company's expanding infrastructure smorgasbord includes a bit of almost everything at the increasingly crowded Houston Ship Channel - all next door to the biggest concentration of refiners in the country.

The buildout, executives say, responds to the increasingly dynamic world of physical crude trading in North America, where the variety of available crudes is growing, and is aimed at securing their central position in moving oil from the US shale boom to market.