The City of Tulsa-Rogers County Port Authority is responsible for managing the Tulsa Port of Catoosa, one of the country's busiest inland river ports. Located at the head of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, the Tulsa Port of Catoosa supports year-round ice-free barge service and accessibility to the worldwide shipping industry through the Navigation System, the Arkansas River, and the Miscopy River to the Gulf of Mexico.
A professional on-site staff manages the Tulsa Port of Catoosa and supports industries and waterway users in planning and financing facilities and packaging cargo for transportation. The Tulsa Port of Catoosa features public and private terminals that handle grain, dry bulk, liquid bulk, and breakbulk cargoes. Tulsa Port of Catoosa customers move more than 2.2 million tons of cargo per year by barge, truck, and rail.
The City of Tulsa-Rogers County Port Authority works through the Port of Catoosa Facilities Authority to promote the long-term operability of the McClellan-Kerr waterway, increase Tulsa's position as the economic and employment base of Northeastern Oklahoma, optimize barge and related truck and rail freight patterns, and operate the Tulsa Port of Catoosa so that it is financially independent.
The Tulsa Port of Catoosa is also an industrial park of over 800 hectares and a multi-modal shipping complex. The 63 industrial facilities in the Tulsa Port of Catoosa provide jobs for about four thousand people who manufacture, distribute, and process a wide range of products from consumer goods to agricultural commodities.
The Tulsa Port of Catoosa owns five public terminals that are maintained and operated through leases with independent contractors. The liquid bulk facilities in the Tulsa Port of Catoosa are privately-owned and operated.
- Bulk and breakbulk terminals
The public dry bulk terminal in the Tulsa Port of Catoosa is operated by Gavilon Fertilizer LLC and handles a variety of dry bulk commodities like pig iron to fertilizer. With capacity to move as much as 400 tons of cargo per hour, the Tulsa Port of Catoosa dry bulk terminal has covered storage with capacity for 80 thousand tons and open storage for 50 thousand tons of cargo. The terminal has two pedestal cranes and a loading conveyance system for outbound cargoes. The terminal is also equipped for unit train transfers.
There are two grain-handling facilities in the Tulsa Port of Catoosa, one private and one public. Both of these grain terminals are operated by Gavilon LLC. Outbound hard red winter wheat is the primary cargo handled by these Tulsa Port of Catoosa terminals. Other cargoes include outbound and inbound soybeans, milo, oats, and millet. The terminals can load grain barges in 2.5 hours, and the facilities stay open 24 hours a day during peak season. There is capacity to store about five million bushels at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa grain-handling terminals. The outbound conveyance systems have capacity to process 25 thousand bushels per hour, and inbound unloading systems can handle 30 thousand bushels per hour. The terminals are equipped with grain samplers and dust control systems, and onsite grain grading services are available.
The Tulsa Port of Catoosa's public General Dry Cargo Dock is used mainly to load/unload iron and steel, project cargo, and breakbulk materials. Tuloma Stevedoring Inc. operates the Tulsa Port of Catoosa General Dry Cargo Dock which is 219.5 meters (720 feet) long with a 70.1-meter (230-foot) wide concrete apron. The General Dry Cargo Dock in the Tulsa Port of Catoosa is equipped with a 200-ton overhead traveling bridge crane and a variety of cranes and forklifts.
- Oil / liquid terminals
There are seven private terminals that handle and store a wide range of bulk liquids in the Tulsa Port of Catoosa. Cargoes include refined petroleum products, chemicals, molasses, and asphalt. The companies operating oil and liquid cargoes include:
- Brenntag,
- BKEP Energy Partners LLC,
- Nustar Energy, LP (former Valero LP),
- Safety-Kleen,
- Petro Source Terminals,
- Terra Nitrogen, and
- Westway.
- Ro/Ro terminals
The port authority for the Tulsa Port of Catoosa operates the public Roll-on/Roll-off Lower Water Wharf that is used to transfer over-sized and over-weight project cargoes like the huge processing equipment that refineries use. The wharf is 54.9 meters (180 feet) long with a 15.2-meter (50-foot) wide concrete apron. It is equipped with embedded rail tracks, and the dock is connected to a gently-sloped (3%) concrete road. Loads greater than 600 tons can be loaded/unloaded to/from rail cars, wheeled transporters, or trucks driven directly onto ocean-rated flat-deck barges.
- Rail and intermodal connections
The Tulsa Port of Catoosa is a busy multi-modal shipping complex. Products move through the Tulsa Port of Catoosa by combinations of barge, truck, and rail. The Tulsa Port of Catoosa includes the 2.4-kilometer (1.5-mile) private channel and the waterfront docks and terminals that line the channel.
The Tulsa Port of Catoosa has three locomotives on its 19.3-kilometer (12-mile) short-line rail system that serves the terminals and the 20 private industry spurs connected to the rail system. The Tulsa Port of Catoosa owns two switch-boats that move barges between docks and fleeting areas along the channel. Contract operators, the Tulsa Port of Catoosa Railroad and the Peavey Company, provide these services.
Tuloma Stevedoring provides inter-port drayage of breakbulk cargoes in the Tulsa Port of Catoosa. With few exceptions, all cargo movements take place on the port's spur-tracks or at terminals where terminal operators offer cargo-handling services.
While the Tulsa Port of Catoosa and its terminal operators do not offer door-to-door freight-handling services between shippers and third-party service providers, they do offer assistance by connecting shippers and service providers.
The Tulsa Port of Catoosa is served by more than 450 trucks representing most of the Nation's contract carriers. Most truck shipments within the Tulsa Port of Catoosa are to/from the terminals or the plants in the general industrial park. Being centrally located in the United States, trucks can reach both coasts within two days.
The Tulsa Port of Catoosa is served by direct connection to Burlington Northern Santa Fe and by short-line switch to Union Pacific and the South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroads. The Tulsa Port of Catoosa is a scheduled stop for all three rail carriers.
The Tulsa International Airport is just 11 kilometers (seven miles) from the Tulsa Port of Catoosa. Cargo carriers that use the airport include FedEx, UPS, and Airborne. Passenger carriers include American, Delta, Continental, and Southwest.
The Tulsa Port of Catoosa also handles containers by barge. The US Customs container freight station at Miles Shipping Company can provide information on steamship container traffic by barge, rail, or truck.
- Port services
The Tulsa Port of Catoosa is home to Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) #53, a secured site for foreign imports and domestic merchandise. Such cargoes are considered international commerce until they leave the zone, so that customs duties and taxes can be deferred. Duties and taxes can be reduced by processing or repackaging materials within the FTZ before they are sold in the US markets.
The City of Tulsa-Rogers County Port Authority, the Tulsa Port of Catoosa Facilities Authority, and private interests work in partnership to develop port properties. The Port Authority is the administrator, operator, and developer for basic infrastructure in Tulsa Port of Catoosa industrial parks. The Facilities Authority, an industrial trust, develops and finances industrial facilities and improvements within the Tulsa Port of Catoosa, including build-to-suit and sale-leaseback structures. The Facilities Authority works with third-party investors and developers to develop properties within Tulsa Port of Catoosa industrial parks.
The Tulsa Port of Catoosa's Port Industrial Park is a 200-acre waterfront terminal area that also includes over 600 hectares of general industrial area. The Tulsa Port of Catoosa has sites from two to 40.5 hectares that are shovel-ready and equipped with utilities, roads, and rail connections. Because the Tulsa Port of Catoosa is located in an unincorporated area of Rogers County, projects can be completed rapidly. The park is zoned for medium industrial uses, and the property is available through long-term lease with the City of Tulsa. Today, over 60 companies operate in the industrial park.
The Riverview Business Park is just 2.4 kilometers (1.5 miles) east of the Tulsa Port of Catoosa Industrial Park. Riverview is about 60 hectares with lots from 1.8 to 2.4 hectares. Most of the sites in this Tulsa Port of Catoosa industrial park are shovel-ready, and all utilities are provided for medium industrial uses. Some lots are available for sale. Riverview does not have direct barge or rail access.
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