Telling time where to go, what to do
October 6, 2015
Judge rules against HTV in defamation case
October 8, 2015
Shell Oil’s decision to withdraw from exploration in Alaska has already had an effect on a major local shipbuilder, which has ordered layoffs and is expecting more.
Edison Chouest Offshore has already begun cutting the workforce at its LAShip operation in Houma, Senior Vice President Roger White confirmed in a telephone interview, due to cancellation of a Royal Dutch Shell order for two icebreakers that were being built at the Houma shipyard.
White said the loss of that contract, along with the oil and gas industry’s overall continued downsizing, are to blame.
“Shell has deserted their Alaskan program, and as a result they don’t have any future need for the vessels they had on contract with us,” White said.
White said that he didn’t know how many shipyard workers are being laid off at the LAShip location, but he said it’s not just the company’s shipyards that are experiencing layoffs. Their service fleet is enduring them, too.
Shell announced on Sept. 28 that they are abandoning the Burger J exploration well in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea.
“Shell has found indications of oil and gas in the Burger J well, but these are not sufficient to warrant further exploration in the Burger prospect,” a statement from the oil giant reads. “The well will be sealed and abandoned in accordance with U.S. regulations.”
Shell had $1.1 billion in contractual commitments, according to the release.
Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet said he and other parish administrators had heard rumors that Chouest’s LAShip operation on the Navigational Canal was experiencing “mass layoffs” and that he’d tasked two of his administrators to call Edison Chouest to verify them, but were told that wasn’t true.
“I knew they were building the icebreakers. I know they’ve drawn down some employment since the beginning of the year. I’ve been talking because rumors about layoffs have been going on [last] week and I have nothing confirmed…,” Marketing Manager for Terrebonne Parish, Katherine Gilbert-Theriot, said. “…My contact has nothing they could enlighten me to at the moment.”
One LAShip employee laid off last week confirmed that he lost his job and is moving back to a different state, but did not wish to be identified.
The employee, who was working on the icebreaker project, said he was offered no severance package.
Attempts to communicate with other Chouest workers through an employee Facebook page were not successful as of press time on late Monday afternoon.
“We’re not the only ones in this predicament,” White said. “Discharging a person, laying someone off, is a very, very difficult thing to do. We’re a family company. We think a major asset is our people. Anybody can buy iron, but the people, the workers, our skillsets are so important to us. But at some point in time, it’s just business. You have to keep the lights burning and you have to stay open so we can hire them back and this is all part of that process.”
Multiple calls and e-mails to Lonnie Thibodeaux, director of communications for Edison Chouest Offshore, were not returned.
