CPRA’s largest Lafourche coastal restoration project ever
November 18, 2014Women fueling the future of the oil industry
November 18, 2014
It’s no secret that Port Fourchon is booming and expanding at an expediential rate.
But even the biggest supporters of the port and what it provides to the region, the state and the nation are taken aback by exactly how much the port has grown in just a few short years.
The results of a study done by industry expert Dr. Loren Scott’s company Loren C. Scott & Associates, Inc. – commissioned by the Greater Lafourche Port Commission for about $100,000 – were released last week and are making those involved with the escalation of Port Fourchon jumping for joy.
The report states that from 2008 to 2014, business sales revenue increased 87 percent from $1.5 billion to $2.8 billion, household earnings increased 88 percent from $350 million to $657.5 million and average annual wage increased 32 percent from $43,016 to $56,963.
“I didn’t expect it to be this much more. I anticipated a pretty good percentage increase but I think the numbers that we see in this new study, in this update, is a little bit more than we would have anticipated,” Greater Lafourche Port Commission Executive Director Chett Chiasson said.
The study indicated that the total number of jobs directly related to Port Fourchon in the state of Louisiana is 10,804, and that’s more than the total employment of 30 other parishes in the state. Additionally, for every one job created in Port Fourchon, another 5.2 jobs are created elsewhere in the state’s economy to support it, the study states.
“Having conducted over 200 economic impact studies, our research team can affirm that this is an unusually high multiplier effect,” the study said.
It also found that an astonishing one out of every 13 jobs in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes is directly related to the existence of Port Fourchon.
“It’s really important to get a handle on a constant basis on what our impact is to our community, our state and internationally, and that’s what we set up to do with this study,” Chiasson said. “This information and continuing to update it through the years is really important to show the importance of Port Fourchon, to show the impact that we have and to show the government, local, state and federal government that this little spot on the map that most people don’t really know about is pretty important to them in their everyday lives when it comes to servicing our energy and having a secure energy plan into the future.”
Maybe even more indicative of Port Fourchon’s importance than it’s astronomical positive statistics would be the devastating negative consequences losing Port Fourchon’s operational ability would have, according to Scott’s team. They found that more than $11.2 billion in business sales, more than $3.1 billion in household earnings and more than 65,000 jobs would be lost if the port was out of service for just a three-week period.
Scott attributes Port Fourchon’s success to it “expanding like crazy.”
“There are a lot of companies and jobs that are associated with Port Fourchon and at least the short-run viability of activity in the Gulf of Mexico depends on Port Fourchon being operative because for the most part everything is serviced out of that port. So it is an absolute key to operations in the Gulf of Mexico. and it’s a key provider of jobs, income and sales to your area because so much activity comes to it.”
Chiasson is also impressed with Port Fourchon’s expansion, and he acknowledges it’s because of private enterprise investing in itself.
“I think it’s a testament to our community. I think it’s a testament to industry. I think it’s a testament to the tenants that we have in the port who are willing to invest and spend a lot of money to attract the business to continue servicing the booming oil and gas industry,” the port commission executive director said.
Chiasson said that 80 percent of revenue from Port Fourchon stays in the community, providing billions in revenue, household earnings and local taxes to the residents of Lafourche and Terrebonne.
It has also resulted in many aggressive plans for Port Fourchon, including progress on Slips A and D as well as looking into the feasibility of making the waterways passable into Port Fourchon deeper, therefore allowing deeper draft vehicles to enter the port.
“What most people say when they see the numbers is, ‘Wow, we didn’t know it was that big,’ and that’s the point. The point is to truly illustrate what we know we’re doing and how important we are to the country,” Chiasson said.
