Galveston Plans $40M Pelican Island Berth for Shipbuilding
The plan includes a 1,000-foot berth and a 500-foot dock on Pelican Island, where the port owns 357 waterfront acres, including 100 along Galveston Harbor.
Galveston Wharves is proposing a $40 million multi-use berth on Pelican Island to support Davie Defense-Gulf Copper’s $1 billion shipbuilding project while adding capacity for roll-on/roll-off cargo and LNG marine fuel bunkering for cruise and cargo ships. The plan calls for a 1,000-foot berth, a 500-foot dock, mooring structures and upland improvements on port-owned waterfront land in Galveston Harbor.
The cruise-facing addition is local LNG supply. Galveston currently homeports one LNG-powered cruise ship, Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Jubilee, and is scheduled to welcome Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas in 2027 and Carnival’s new Tropicale in 2028.
Shipbuilding project drives Pelican Island plan
“We’ve had plans for Pelican Island for some time, but the Davie Defense-Gulf Copper expansion is the catalyst to make these plans a reality,” said Galveston Wharves Port Director and CEO Rodger Rees.
The port owns 357 waterfront acres on Pelican Island, including 100 acres on Galveston Harbor adjacent to the new shipbuilding operation. Rees described the site as one of Texas’ few large deepwater port properties still available for major development.
The port would fund the berth and related infrastructure with operating reserves, supplemented by federal and state grants. Rees said the project would give the shipbuilding expansion logistics support to reduce supply-chain delays, speed contract delivery and create jobs.
The proposal follows a June 1 groundbreaking attended by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Davie Defense-Gulf Copper and federal officials for modernization of Davie Defense’s Coast Guard icebreaker production facilities in Galveston and Port Arthur. Davie Defense is tied to a $3.5 billion U.S. Coast Guard contract for five polar icebreakers and has described the Texas investment as supporting Arctic Security Cutter production.
LNG bunkering plan targets cruise and cargo demand
An LNG developer is pursuing a marine fueling project for the port that would include a modular production facility and LNG bunkering, with some operations placed on Pelican Island. The port did not identify the developer.
Rees said LNG bunkering would give cruise and cargo ships access to a cleaner marine fuel at Galveston and help regional air quality. He also said the capability could help the port “attract newer cruise ships to homeport” in Galveston.
Galveston’s cruise traffic has grown in recent years. The port handled more than 3.4 million passengers and more than 380 sailings in 2024, compared with almost 1.5 million passengers and 354 cruises in 2023. In the first four months of 2025, more than 650,000 passengers sailed from Galveston, up 7.6% from the same period in 2024.
Other cruise ports have begun handling LNG passenger-ship bunkering this year. TotalEnergies Marine Fuels supplied Silversea’s Silver Nova at Singapore Cruise Centre in February 2025 using the bunker vessel Brassavola, while Seaspan Energy supplied the same ship at the Port of Vancouver in May 2025 using Seaspan Garibaldi.
Ro-ro tenants would gain additional berth capacity
Beyond shipbuilding and LNG, the Pelican Island berth would open additional waterfront capacity for the port’s roll-on/roll-off cargo tenants and their customers. The project would extend port activity onto land across from Galveston’s main cruise and cargo operations, giving the wharves another site for future cargo growth.
Rees’s note did not include a construction schedule for the berth or LNG fuel project.
See cruises departing Galveston on Cruise Lookup.
