Port Fourchon busy as oilfield expands

If the past few months are any indication of the future, Port Fourchon is about to enjoy some of the best years in its history.

Chett Chiasson, executive director of the Greater Lafourche Port Commission, detailed work at the port this week and said that business is booming.

The local leader touted that the port, which has 80 tenants on 135 leases, is the base for more than 90 percent of the Gulf of Mexico’s deep-water service activities – a number that continues to grow as the industry further blossoms.

“Things are moving so rapidly,” Chiasson said. “Companies are expanding and are investing tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars into the port as we speak. It’s really exciting right now.”

The expansion within the port is all working hand-in-hand with the oilfield boom currently taking place in the Gulf of Mexico.

In the past several months, drilling work (especially in deep-water) have returned to, and have sometimes exceeded, pre-BP levels.

As that expansion continues into the future, Fourchon continues to stand in line to benefit drastically from the growth.

“It’s all because the deep-water oil and gas industry is growing at a rapid rate,” Chiasson said. “And they’re going to need their services fairly soon to support that. Everything that we’ve been told by the industry is that between now and the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015, we’re going to go from 45 or so deep-water rigs drilling in the Gulf to 60. That is a huge increase.”

With an increase in rigs, Fourchon also has big plans to increase its capacity.

Chiasson said that Slip C, which was made available for development approximately a year ago, is already close to a decade ahead of itself in terms of activity.

The executive director said that the new slip created more than 15,000 linear feet of waterfront within the port.

“And all but about 2,700- to 3,000 feet of that is spoken for already,” Chiasson said. “It’s absolutely amazing. This is probably eight years ahead of time than what you anticipate this large of a slip to be spoken for.”

Chiasson said that Slip C is also where the largest project in the history of the port is currently taking place.

“We just opened bids for bulkheads,” Chiasson said. “We’re building 2,600 linear feet of bulkheads in Slip C. That project is actually the largest single project that the port has ever done. It’s a $15.6 million project. A total of 1,400 feet is going to be on the west side of Slip C, and Schlumberger is going to be leasing that property.”

With Slip C slowly pushing its way toward full occupancy, Chiasson said plans are already started to expand further.

“We’ve submitted our permit applications for Slip D already,” Chiasson said. “(That’s) because things are moving so rapidly (with Slip C).

“Slip D is going to pretty much take up the expansion space north of Pass Fourchon. In the future, we can extend Slip A, so that’s another possibility for growth. Then we’re looking further south to what we call the Fourchon Island area, as well.”

So as long as the oilfield keeps growing, so will the port.

Chiasson is happy to sit back and watch it all unfold.

The port sees roughly 270 large supply vessels glide through its waterways each day – a number that continues to hold firm as more and more projects take shape in the Gulf of Mexico’s fertile floor.

“(The oilfield boom) is what’s sparking all of this expansion and growth in the port,” he said. “We’re happy to accommodate.”