By Brad Goins
Sasol is likely to be the biggest investor in this big upcoming boom you’ve been hearing about and will keep hearing about. The company will put up to $21 billion in the kitty, according to a fall, 2014, report from the Baton Rouge Business Report.
Other high-dollar investors include Cameron LNG, who was said to be spending $10 billion on its new gas-to-liquid operation at its Hackberry (Cameron Parish) terminal.
Right up there with Cameron LNG is Southern California Telephone and Energy, which will strive to build its own LNG operation — this one on Monkey Island (which is also in Cameron Parish). As of the time of the Business Report story, Southern California was investing $9 billion in this energy project.
The Job Figures
The scope of the enterprises can be seen in other indicators than dollar totals. The Sasol project alone may generate as many as 5,000 temporary construction jobs. It is also slated to create 1,200 new, full-time permanent positions.
That would be a big total anywhere; but it’s especially big in a metro area that numbers just 200,000.
An even bigger generator of new, full-time jobs, is the Golden Nugget casino, which is set to open its doors soon. It may provide the Lake Area with as many as 2,000 new full-time jobs. Although its investment total of $600 million is plenty hefty, it is, of course, dwarfed by the sizes of the projects discussed earlier. Also, and again of course, a casino is not an energy-related project. But there are some who judge the local success of a business operation by the number of permanent jobs it provides (and not by other more dramatic numbers).
Other Figures
Planners are convinced that worker villages will have to be a big part of the solution for the problem. The area has already gotten started on these, going so far as to invest $70 million in the worker village called Pelican Lodge. (The funds came from a Lake Charles company — Greenfield Logistical Solutions. The company shows that the mere building of worker villages is itself a source of monetary investment in the community.)
Residents often aren’t too keen about worker villages. But, to repeat, planners say they will be all but a necessity if a major housing crisis is to be averted.
The biggest number anyone has yet heard in regard to the boom is a figure of $103 billion in total investment for all new projects. This gigantic figure was recently floated by Louisiana Economic Outlook 2015 and 2016.
And while the figure is quite a bit larger than anything being seen around here, and may be overly optimistic, it is an indicator of how energized everyone in the state is about the headline-making business growth taking place in Southwest Louisiana.
Major Players
Here’s one more round-up of the other big players that are contributing to the massive amount of capital investment:
• Cheniere Energy
Cheniere Energy started out planning to spend at least $11 billion for development of its gas-to-liquid (LNG) plant at its Sabine Pass terminal. Cheniere’s now saying the entire project might amount to a $20 billion investment by the time it’s all over.
The project would create nearly 300 permanent jobs. These will have a base salary of $100,000.
• Axiall Chemical
Axiall Chemical’s new project will have the goal of producing 2 billion pounds of ethylene per year. Recent figures project a $3 billion investment and 250 new permanent jobs.
• G2X Energy
G2X Energy will invest at least $1.3 billion in a liquid gas-to-gasoline project located at the Port of Lake Charles. Nearly 250 new permanent jobs will be created.
• Lake Charles Clean Energy
Lake Charles Clean Energy (owned by Leucadia National) will create the world’s first operation for transforming petroleum coke to methanol through a gasification process. The investment will amount to $2.6 billion.
• Magnolia LNG
Magnolia LNG will spend $3.5 billion or more on yet another project to convert natural gas to liquid. This will also be located on Port of Lake Charles property.
‘The Vibe Of Downtown’
Not all changes that will take place as the result of the boom will be quantifiable. There is talk about a huge influx of new people bringing about changes in culture. While the talk is pretty vague at this point, Lori Marinovich is willing to hazard some specifics about what the whole thing could mean for lakefront and downtown development.
She told the Business Report:
“We’re starting to see more interest in food trucks, jet ski and pontoon boat rentals, and street performers. There’s a lot of stuff bubbling up, and it’s an indicator that people are trying to respond and continue to draw attention to the vibe of downtown.”
The Business Report quoted Parish Administrator Bryan Beam as saying that if all the major components of the boom come together in a good way, “we can make Southwest Louisiana a place where new people want to work.”
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