Joining a cache of oil companies moving to St. Tammany Parish, Chevron unveiled its new 20-acre office complex near Covington, the first office complex in Louisiana recognized by federal authorities for it energy efficiency.

“The Gulf of Mexico is very important to us. We see a long range future here,” Chevron Vice President of Gulf of Mexico Operations George Kirkland said with Parish President Kevin Davis and 100 other business and community leaders in attendance Thursday. “That’s why we are building a building here.”

Chevron’s move from its office tower at 935 Gravier St., in the heart of downtown New Orleans, seems to signal a sea change of sorts for New Orleans-based oil companies that want to stay in Louisiana but favor St. Tammany’s low crime rate and top notch public education.

From left, St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis and Chevron executives Warner Wiliams, Melody Meyer, Chevron'€™s vice president of its Gulf of Mexico strategic business unit, Patty Loden and Gary Luquette cut the ribbon this week for Chevron'€™s new 300,000-square-feet office complex near Covington. The office will house the oil company'€™s Gulf of Mexico operations. (Staff Photo by Matthew Penix)

“This is huge. Words can describe it,” Davis said. “For a corporation such as Chevron to move to St. Tammany, it sends a real good message to other CEOs to come to St. Tammany.”

On the heels of Chevron’s move, Davis said he’s in negotiations to bring a $2 billion energy company to St. Tammany, also interested in the Northshore’s higher ground and lower threat of hurricane flooding. He declined to identify the company pending negotiations.

Chevron’s nearly 300,000-square-foot facility is the first office in Louisiana to receive the federal government’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification from the United States Green Building Council. The council rates environmental impacts of new buildings.

Near the front entrance, a high tech touch screen monitor tracks the facility’s energy usage. Since May 1, when employees started moving to the complex in North Park, 58,000 gallons of water were saved, or 10,581 minutes of shower time. Also saved were roughly 12,796 kilowatt hours, the equivalent of roughly 28 barrels of oil or two cars removed from area roads.

Chevron executives spared no expense in building the facility, said Mickey Driver, external communications advisor.

The two-building complex boasts a massage parlor, a 7,000-square-foot gym, a walking trail and more.

In its foyer visitors are greeted by a 12- by 24-foot mural of Bogue Falaya made of 700,000 hand cut pieces of glass. Just past its foyer, glass doors, reminiscent of Star Trek technology, slide open when an ID card is scanned.

“You can’t do this in downtown New Orleans,” Driver said. “You can’t have ponds with geese and a jogging trail around the office park.”

The new office houses 550 employees, half of which live on the Northshore, but it was retrofitted to hold 750 employees, according to company literature.

For Southshore employees teetering on moving north, compensation packages were offered and a van pooling service was initiated for them free of charge.

Chevron is one of several energy companies carving a river of black gold through St. Tammany.

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 platforms, are moving forward with plans to relocate to Covington.

“This is a trend that’s been happening for the past 10 to 20 years,” Brenda Reine, president of St. Tammany Economic Development Foundation, has said.

“Now post-Katrina, it’s just sped up 10 years. It’s a natural progression.”