St. Tammany News

Storm's aftermath a nightmare for Slidell family

Another shot of black gold is coming to St. Tammany. After months of tug of war zoning approvals, offshore oil company LLOG Exploration and Production Co. is scheduled March 13 to break ground on a four-story, 105,000-square-feet office building south of Covington, expected to bring 100 employees to the parish.

The development, expected to be complete by February 2009, includes a 52,000-square-foot upscale health club and an adjoining executive conference center, surrounded by lush landscaping located off Ochsner Boulevard near the intersection of Interstate 12 and Louisiana Highway 21. State and local officials, including Parish President Kevin Davis, are expected to attend the groundbreaking.

The hydraulic wheeze of backhoes and bulldozer working on the year-long project represents another economic feather for a parish that's seeing more and more oil companies dropping financial anchors in St. Tammany Parish than ever before.

"It's simple. Fundamentally, the majority of our top managers live here. We have family here. We like it here," said Scott Guttermann, president and CEO of LLOG Exploration, a Gulf of Mexico oil explorer.

While Houston has become the nation's energy hub, siphoning many New Orleans companies westward, those companies that wish to remain in Louisiana tout St. Tammany's top notch public schools, lush landscape and relatively low crime as a beacon of new beginnings, Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, said.

"These companies are still afraid of what might happen if they stay in New Orleans," Briggs said. "(The shift) is just what's happening. Let's face it, unfortunately New Orleans is not the safest place on earth."

Briggs said in Houston, the capital of America's energy interests, the trend is for oil companies to move away from downtown and into the suburbs where quality of life issues are important.

"This will likely be the same here," he said, referring to St. Tammany and New Orleans.

"Obviously, the smart move would to be in Houston, where all the action takes place," he said. "But if we are going to do this in Louisiana, this was the only place to go."

Already ATS Inc., a subsidiary of Woodside Petroleum, Australia's No. 1 publicly traded oil and gas company, and Hornbeck Offshore Services, a company providing drilling platforms, have moved to St. Tammany Parish.

Now, Chevron, New Orleans's second largest oil company with 500 employees, and Wink Engineering Inc., a Metairie-based firm specializing in designing offshore drilling rigs and platform, are moving forward with plans to relocate to Covington.

Chevron is still on pace to move into its 20-acre office building in Northpark along U.S. Highway 190, just south of Covington, by year's end. Roughly 500 employees from Chevron's Gravier Street office, which sustained $1 million in damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, will work, eat and shop in St. Tammany Parish, said Qi Wilson, spokeswoman.

"It's just a bridge ride away," said Wilson, referring to the move. "With all the (hurricane) damages .... We are concerned with employee's safety. But we wanted to stay local. No hurricanes like that will hit St. Tammany."

Wink Engineering Inc. also plans to move 120 employees into a nearly 7-acre site in St. Tammany Middle Business Park at the intersection of I-12 and U.S. 190 in Covington. The company expects to grow to 200 employees within three years, hiring locally if possible, said Chief Operating Officer Michael Wink.

"A Wink office on the Northshore is the logical next move in our company's strategic regional expansion," he said, adding the Northshore location "is definitely seen as a recruiting tool" for an industry facing critical worker shortages.

"This is a trend that's been happening for the past 10 to 20 years," said Brenda Reine, president of St. Tammany Economic Development Foundation. "Now post-Katrina, it's just sped up 10 years. It's a natural progression."