Posted on June 20, 2016
By Mike Hill, dailycomet.com
The first phase of dredging Slip D in Port Fourchon’s northern expansion area has been completed as the port prepares for the eventual upswing in the oil industry.
The project will add 300 acres of developed property and create more than 10,000 linear feet of waterfront to the central service hub for the Gulf of Mexico oilfield industry.
Slip D will be about 3,800 feet long, and crews will dredge nearly 4 million cubic yards to create 150 acres of developed property and 65 acres of marsh, according to the Greater Lafourche Port Commission. Two miles of steel bulkhead and one mile of roadway is also being added.
Earlier this year, Port Executive Director Chett Chiasson said the slip will be wider than Port Fourchon’s other slips, which are 700 feet wide.
“Our tenants envision bringing larger vessels into port waterways into the future, so Slip D is growing in width to accommodate longer, wider vessels and the turning radius a larger vessel may need,” Chiasson said.
Edison Chouest Offshore has the right of first refusal on a section of Slip D, he added.
The project cost is $100 million, officials said. Crosby Dredging is the contractor, and Picciola and Associates is the design and engineering firm.
To carve out the footprint of Slip D, contractors used a barge-mounted bucket dredge and dragline to dig the outline of the 1,000-foot-wide slip, the port said in a news release.
During this first phase of work over the past seven months, over 451,000 cubic yards of material were excavated and used at the port. Initial dredged material is being used to form containment levees for the next phase of the project’s construction.
The port says the next phase, hydraulic dredging, should begin early next year. The excavated materials will be used to construct over 60 acres of wetlands in the port area, providing a natural protective buffer from hurricanes and storm surge.
“Over the years, we have taken an increasingly holistic approach to our port’s development,” Chiasson said. “Since Hurricane Katrina, we have focused on making sure that our projects and infrastructure are built to a higher standard.”
“We have increased the base elevation of our newer slips, our roads, bulkheads, you name it,” he added. ”In addition to building higher and harder, we have also continued to add hundreds of additional acres of wetlands through our own development to protect our tenants’ assets in a natural way.”.
The Port Commission says it is also focused on a sustainable and affordable partnership with the tenants and users of the port, highlighted by its willingness to work with its lease rates during the oil slump and to be a strong voice in advocating for industry issues.
A reduced rental rate at Port Fourchon implemented last year to help area companies cope with the historic downturn in the offshore industry was extended in February.
In March 2015, the Port Commission approved a 20 percent rental discount for port land leases to help out tenants who were having to make similar-sized cuts in their own budgets.
Chiasson said the agreement expires Dec. 31 or when the price of oil hits $70 a barrel for 60 consecutive days, whichever comes first.
Port Fourchon services over 90 percent of the Gulf of Mexico’s deepwater oil production and more than 250 companies use it as a base of operation, according to the Port Commission’s website. Up to 1,200 trucks and 400 large supply vessels travel in and out of the port each day.
The port is also the land base for the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which handles 10-15 percent of the nation’s domestic oil and 10-15 percent of the nation’s foreign oil, and is connected to 50 percent of U.S. refining capacity.
Port Fourchon supplies the country with about 18 percent of its oil supply as more than 1.5 million barrels of crude oil per day are transported via pipelines through the port, according to the port commission.
For information on leasing property in Slip D or any of the port’s other development areas, contact the commission at 632-6701 or visit Port Fourchon’s “Properties Available” webpage at www.portfourchon.com.
Source: dailycomet.com
