LOOP contracted Fluor to provide preliminary design, detailed engineering, engineering, engineering management, inspection and expediting, limited procurement, and construction management for America's first deepwater port. Fluor was responsible for the marine portion of the project with an installed value exceeding $150 million.
The port consisted of three single-point mooring buoys, each taller than a four-story building; a 16-pile pumping platform with metering system; a four-pile controls and crew quarters platform; one 48-inch diameter, 19-mile submarine pipeline and three 56-inch diameter, 8,000-foot-long submarine pipelines.
A ship tied into one of the three buoys by the buoy line, allowing the ship to swing around the buoy in a 360-degree arc. By facing into the wind, the tanker could offload safely in seas up to 15 feet. Two 1,050-foot flexible, floating 24-inch diameter hoses hooked up to the cargo manifold, and pumps transferred the product. The oil then moved to the pumping platform.
From the platform, crude was boosted to shore by three 7,000-horse power electric motor-driven pumps. A 48-inch diameter submarine pipeline connected LOOP's onshore system with the pumping platform.