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BOLLINGER FILLS NEW AND EXISTING CONTRACTS At Bollinger Shipyards Inc. in Lockport, La., Robert Socha, executive vice president for sales and marketing, said ?Bollinger has maintained continuous utilization in our facilities this calendar year. We have not had an uptick in our repair and conversion activities in 2012 to date. As for new construction, we?ve seen several opportunities for DP2 offshore supply vessels, deck barges and various smaller inland boats and barge units. We have several building programs that we had commitments on prior to 2012.? He added optimistically, ?we continue to move forward with our Crowley ocean class tug-building program, on which we delivered a boat in early September. We also have sludge ships for New York City, a ood protection gate for Terrebonne Parish and our U.S. Coast Guard Fast Response Cutter or FRC program, which delivered boat number 3 in August.? PORT FOURCHON THRIVES AS DRILLING ACCELERATES Chett Chiasson, executive director of Port Fourchon in Louisiana, also weighed in on the past twelve months and told MarineNews,? We had a little hiccup from Isaac, but fared pretty well and were able to get back fairly quickly. Commercial interest and demand for property in the port is high. Our future is looking good, all because of new drilling permits and new drill ships and rigs coming back into the Gulf. With more rigs drilling, more new vessels are needed.? Chiasson said Fourchon services 90 percent of all deepwater activity in the Gulf and about half of all drilling rigs in the Gulf. ?We support 20 percent of the nation?s oil supplies,? and, he insisted, ?We?re the premium oil and gas service port for this country. We have about 45,000 linear feet of waterfront serving the oil and gas industry, and that?s still growing.? No other port on the Gulf has more than 6,000 linear feet devoted to oil and gas. ?If you combined other Gulf ports serving oil and gas, they?d only have a fraction of the linear feet for the industry that we have,? he said. Chiasson said ?an estimated 8,000 jobs in the region are impacted by the port, and that number is expected to rise. We?re doing an economic study now and will have updated jobs gures next year.? In addition to supporting offshore production, Port Fourchon is home to the Louisiana Rigs in the Gulf of MexicoSept. 24Prior WeekMonth AgoYear Ago Total Rigs in Drilling Fleet 115115112116Rigs Under Contract76767360Rigs Without Contract39393956Fleet Utilization Rate66.1%66.1%65.2%51.7%www.marinelink.com MN 41MNOct2012 Layout 32-49.indd 41MNOct2012 Layout 32-49.indd 4110/2/2012 10:21:49 AM10/2/2012 10:21:49 AM
