This relationship between the Gulf Coast and East Coast is 

 significant in that it illustrates the economic dependence of 

 the regions on each other — the East Coast dependent on the 

 Gulf Coast as a source of petroleum products and the Gulf Coast 

 on the East Coast as a market for its products. 



The prospects for future expansion of refinery capacity is 

 largely dependent on the development of deep-draft offshore 

 oil ports such as LOOP in Louisiana and Seadock in Texas. The 

 potential for expansion of refinery capacity as well as other 

 potential effects of LOOP and Seadock are discussed in Chapter 2. 



Natural Gas 



The impact of OCS natural gas production on gas processing 

 facilities in Texas has been minimal due to the very small per- 

 centage of total gas production from the OCS (see Table 1.6). 

 In 1975, there were a total of 358 gas processing plants in Texas 

 with a capacity of 29,452 million cubic feet/day ( Oil and Gas 

 Journal , July 14, 1975). However, over 95% of the gas processed 

 was produced onshore. In addition, it should be noted that some 

 of the OCS gas produced in Texas is processed in Louisiana. 

 That is, pipelines from two gas fields in the Texas High Island 

 area come onshore in Louisiana ( Oil and Gas Journal , August 19, 

 1974). 



The situation in Louisiana is different (Table 1.6). While 

 Louisiana had 122 plants with a total capacity of 23,112.2 MMCF/D 

 (Oil and Gas Journal, July 14, 1975), nearly 50% of natural gas 



43 



