The company’s application, lodged last month with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, requests permission to dredge a berth at its Newport News Pier IX coal terminal to a depth of 52 feet. It is now 45ft.

Kinder Morgan spokesman Joe Hollier told ILN that the work was driven by customer demand.

“We have significant customer-backed investment in this site, and the expansion will provide storage space and throughput capacity to another client on a long term basis,” Hollier said.

“We had a record month (March) and quarter, and continue to search for ways to debottleneck to help our customers turn times.”

Kinder Morgan’s Pier IX has the capacity to berth large Panamax and Cape class vessels on the south side of the pier, and this dredging will allow it to accommodate these bigger ships on the northside as well, increasing efficiency.

“The dredging will allow KM to berth and load Panamax and Cape class vessels at two berths, whereby now we only do so on a single berth,” Hollier told ILN.

“By deepening we will have a better ability for faster turn times of vessel loadings which should increase our overall throughput by minimizing downtime at the berth.

According to the permit lodged with VMRC, the work will cost $1.5 million and will require 118,200 cubic yards of maintenance dredging, as well as 83,600 cubic yards of new dredging necessary to achieve the proposed depth.

The permit estimates the dredge work will take two months, and states that two additional cycles of dredging will be required over the next 10 years.

“We expect dredging to begin as soon as permitted; hopefully no later than fall 2013,” Hollier said.

VMRC will consider the proposal at its May 28 meeting.

Kinder Morgan recently announced that it would not go forward with its plans to develop its 30 million tonne Port Westward coal export terminal in Oregon.

The announcement made the project the third of six original coal export terminals planned in the northwest to be shelved or cancelled.