May Commerce Club Featuring Barbara Pickering, President, Chevron Shipping Company
Navigating Tomorrow: Advancing a Thriving Maritime Sector Together
The Port Bureau welcomed Barbara Pickering, president of Chevron Shipping Company, as the featured speaker at the May Commerce Club luncheon. Entitled “Navigating Tomorrow: Advancing a Thriving Maritime Sector Together”, Pickering introduced her talk with a video highlighting Chevron’s Pacific Area Lightering operation, initiated off the West Coast 29 years ago. Since its inception, Chevron has completed 2,650 lighterings and moved as much as a million barrels each time.
“29 years ago, I was part of a team that had the innovation to be able to do lighting offshore in California, which was unique,” said Pickering, explaining that while such operations weren’t unique in the Gulf but there had been significant regulatory barriers to overcome to achieve implementation in California. The operation has continued to be a success as its location is only 25 miles offshore, while competing operators are 200 miles offshore.
“I'm so proud, after 29 years, we're continuing to do that safely and reliably. It’s a great example of our history at Chevron Shipping,” she said.
Pickering gave an overview of the company, indicating Chevron Shipping transported the equivalent of one billion barrels of oil annually, operated 29 tankers, and completed 3,800+ annual voyages via third-party vessels. The company employs approximately 2,000 people from more than 20 countries and operates 60+ marine terminals.
“As a result of the expertise we have on the shore and the ships, we also support 61 terminals globally with marine expertise. At the Pasadena Refinery, just down the Ship Channel, we have been working on their marine terminal,” Pickering said. “This is the beauty of Chevron Shipping - we are able to bring our maritime expertise ashore … we’re building expertise now and for the future.”
“In our home port, as I call it, we are often seen with our own ships,” she continued. “We have moved 93 million tons of product over the Houston Ship Channel in a thousand voyages.”
Chevron Shipping also supports nine education programs throughout the U.S., including a local partnership with Houston Independent School District at Stephen F. Austin High School.
“Going forward, I believe the future of the industry [is] in educating youngsters into this industry. I'm proud that Chevron Shipping did sponsor the first high school here, the Austin School, where we took financial responsibility of adding some sponsorship to the school,” said Pickering. “We have given talks. It's been great.”
In April, 19 seniors from the Austin High School’s Maritime Studies program took a five-day educational voyage on a Carnival Cruise Line Ship as part of Chevron Shipping’s support. Students spent part of the day in classroom learning from the ship’s captain and other crew members and other parts of the day in tours of the inner workings of the vessel.
“This summer, we'll take a couple of students into the Chevron Shipping [offices] to give them experience,” she added.
Thank you to our Commerce Club sponsors!
Annual Table sponsors:
Callan Marine • Chevron/Kirby • Enterprise Products Partners • Kinder Morgan • Houston Pilots • Intercontinental Terminals Company • Moran Shipping Agencies, Inc. • Pemex • Port Houston • Targa Resources • TGS Ceder Port Industrial Park • WGMA
May Table sponsors: