Southwest Louisiana Port Network
11 Nov, 2010
By: Jennifer Alten

Working together to bridge the distance.
Flanking the western Gulf Coast and the Texas border, the five-parish region known as Southwest Louisiana is entrenched in the maritime industry. Six ports operate in the area, offering everything from deep water to river access, along with abundant connections to rail and trucking. Thanks to the Southwest Louisiana Port Network, businesses can easily move their goods – and the raw materials needed to make them – in and out of the area, connecting seamlessly to the rest of the world.
This strategic advantage hasn’t gone unnoticed, especially by those wanting to transport petroleum, liquid natural gas (LNG) and petrochemical products, as well as raw materials like aluminum, barite, food items and a host of other cargoes. The area is also known as the “oil patch,” with many companies in the region supplying offshore oil rigs or associated in some way with the oil and petrochemical industries.
This port network is made up of the Lake Charles Harbor and Terminal District (commonly called the Port of Lake Charles), the East and West Cameron Ports, the West Calcasieu Port, the Mermentau River Harbor and Terminal District and the Vinton Harbor and Terminal District. Created two years ago, the Southwest Louisiana Port Network has streamlined communication and forged even more productive working relationships among the ports.

It’s no wonder that the word “port” is part of support.
“Our corner of the state is blessed with a strong lineup of progressive ports. Most folks are well aware of the Port of Lake Charles, which is the country’s 11th largest port. But, we also have the others, each with its own niche. For the past two years, all six ports have worked closely together within the Southwest Louisiana Port Network,” said Lynn Hohensee, Port Director at the West Calcasieu Port. “The Southwest Louisiana maritime industry is in a better position to react to opportunities in concert, rather than separately.”

The ports definitely have the backing of the state. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal recently signed House Bill 215, the Ports of Louisiana Investor Tax Credit, which gives private investment at ports a five percent tax credit.

“But in order to qualify, the company has to provide family-wage jobs with benefits,” explained Dan Loughney, Director of Marketing and Port Operations at the Lake Charles Harbor and Terminal District. “The program has already been successful at helping economic development at the ports.”

While each the ports is working together to drive economic activity in the area, each offers a different part of Southwest Louisiana’s intermodal equation.

Lake Charles Harbor and Terminal DistrictAs one of the top 15 ports in the nation based on movement of tonnage, this deepwater port is also one of the largest in the U.S., and as such, is vital to the region. The Port of Lake Charles is 34 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico and intersects the 40-foot deep Calcasieu Ship Channel and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, a 1,000 mile-long inland waterway that runs from Carrabelle, Florida, to Brownsville, Texas.

According to Loughney, one-third of U.S. oil reserves are in Lake Charles and 12 percent of all LNG comes through the Port of Lake Charles. The fourth largest refinery, CITGO, is also located there.
The port recently received a huge piece of business, a $1.6 billion project to build Lake Charles Cogeneration, a clean energy petroleum coke gasification plant that began construction in 2009 on port-owned property.

Another huge business win for the port is a project by Shaw Fabrication and Manufacturing Group, a Baton Rouge-based Fortune 500 company that will build modular components for new and modified power plants, the first such facility in the nation.

“Shaw chose this location because of its deep-water access and proximity to several different modes of transportation—rail, truck and barge—which were critical as we made the determination to locate the facility here. We also assessed the access to a workforce with the skillsets we needed,” said Jack Martin, Senior Vice President of Shaw Modular Solutions and Structural Steel Operation. “The workforce offers the right skillsets we need, from welders to painters to crane operators to the administrative staff necessary to run the facility efficiently.”

According to an economic impact analysis performed by Louisiana State University, the Shaw project will result in $17.8 billion in new sales, $4.5 billion in new earnings and 9,205 total new Louisiana jobs, including indirect jobs, over 15 years.