Business briefs for May 1, 2012

La.’s federal offshore rigs top pre-ban level

The number of rigs operating in the federal Outer Continental Shelf waters off Louisiana’s coast has reached 41 in the most recent weekly count — the first time rig activity has surpassed 40 since a few weeks before federal regulators declared a months-long ban on deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in late May 2010.

Louisiana Department of Natural Resources Secretary Scott Angelle said the 41-rig count is up one from the previous week and up 18 from the 23 active rigs that were operating in the area at the same time last year — an increase of about 75 percent.

The average count of rigs running during the three months before the federal moratorium that was declared lifted in October 2010 was about 42.

In the weeks that followed the declaration of the moratorium, that rig count fell as low as 11.

“Through the efforts of the Gulf Economic Survival Team, the Back-to-Work Coalition, we have made progress in approaching a level of drilling activity that is much closer to what it was before the moratorium,” Angelle said.

“We still have work to do to ensure that progress continues, but I am bullish on the opportunities provided by the Gulf OCS to produce both energy and jobs,” Angelle said.

Shaw gets contract for Texas plant

The Shaw Group Inc. has signed a deal to do the front-end engineering design for a new ethylene plant for Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP in Baytown, Texas.

The value of the contract was not disclosed.

Front-end engineering typically includes solving technical issues and estimating a plant’s cost.

The new plant will have a capacity of 3.3 billion pounds per year.

“This plant will be among the first to use economical supplies of ethane feedstock derived from shale gas resources in the United States,” James Glass, president of Shaw’s Energy and Chemicals Group, said in a news release.

Ethylene is derived from natural gas and is a building block in alcohol- and plastic-based products, such as solvents and polymers. The plant will be located at Chevron Phillips Chemical’s Cedar Bayou Plant in Baytown.

From Business staff reports