Oil developer Sentinel just got the U.S. and Japan to fund a deepwater terminal near Texas—but it won’t put a dent in spiraling prices until 2028

U.S. petroleum exports are rising to record highs amid the Iran war, and now a little-known developer will build a large oil-shipping hub deep in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico—but only with funding from the Trump administration and Japan. The unusual government investment for Sentinel Midstream’s multibillion-dollar Texas Gulf Link deepwater terminal is a bet on expanding U.S. energy infrastructure—and keeping Japan supplied with oil—at a time when U.S. energy developers are unwilling to take on the financial risks without long-term commercial contracts in hand. The U.S. Commerce Department said the Japan-U.S. strategic Investment agreement will provide an estimated $2.1 billion to the project—the details are undisclosed—which was the originally announced cost of Texas GulfLink. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a statement that the project will “reinforce America’s position as the world’s leading energy supplier.” A long line of the largest oil tankers (very large crude carriers, or VLCCs) trekked to the Texas Gulf Coast beginning in April because of the lack of supplies from the Middle East. But the massive tankers, which can each hold 2 million barrels of oil, can only partially fill up at Texas ports because of the shallower depths. They must be topped off in the Gulf of Mexico via smaller tankers—a more time-consuming, expensive, and environmentally risky process. Keland Rumsey, crude team lead analyst for East Daley Analytics, told Fortune that he believes the Iran war is helping the joint governments expedite the project, even if it won’t be completed until late 2028. The world will see the U.S. as a more secure source of oil in the future, he said. “I do think there’s going to be a shifting of how people view the Middle East as far as a reliable source of energy,” Rumsey said. “That is one of the biggest drivers for why this is being pushed to get built.” Sentinel is a private Dallas company backed by Cresta Fund Management. Sentinel CEO Jeff