Page 41: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 1992)

Port Of South Louisiana

Plans To Turn Riverplex

Into Intermodal Facility

The 205-acre Riverplex Interna- tional Inc. terminal in Louisiana is to be turned into an intermodal cargo-handling facility by the Port of South Louisiana, which recently paid $12.1 million to purchase it.

The terminal will be renamed

Globalplex.

The terminal has handled dry bulk cargoes for the past four years, ranging from minerals to wood chips.

The Port of South Louisiana plans a five-phase renovation that will en- able the facility to handle general and neo-bulk cargoes.

Included in the Riverplex facility are an industrial park, foreign trade zone, 454 feet of wharf, two major rail links, about 300,000 square feet of warehouse, gantry cranes, three 80-foot silos, a water treatment plant and a conveyor system.

The Port of South Louisiana will spend $2.4 million on dock exten- sions to allow the complex to berth two vessels at once. Another $3.1 million will be spent to install an automated ship-loader as well bag- ging facilities.

Centurion Seaport Systems Inc. of New Orleans was hired by the port to manage the facility.

Louisiana's No. 3 commodity is forest products, the bulk of which moves not through Louisiana ports, but through Mobile, Ala.

North Sea Operators

Evaluating New Rig Concept

For Long-Term Programs

A new jackup concept, capable of drilling and production operations in more than 100 meters (about 328 feet) of water, is being developed by the rig designer Marathon

LeTourneau of Texas, with

Christiann Kongsli and

Normann Riksen, the Norwegian rig experts. Talks are under way with potential users and investors, with the ultimate goal of securing a long-term contract for the $100 mil- lion to $150 million unit.

Other concepts have been offered to the offshore industry before, but the designers feel that their rig has an upper hand over the competition because of the attention given new technical regulations and commer- cial requirements in Norway and the U.K.

Larger jackup concepts, dubbed

TPG 500 and Seagull, respectively, have been designed by Technip

Geoproduction in Paris, and Odfjell

Drilling & Consulting Company in

Bergen. These units are directed toward contract production work in water depths of as much as 160 meters (about 525 feet)

The fabrication price for the Mara- thon rig, somewhere between $100 million and $150 million depending on final specifications, would be well below that of the Seagulf or TPG- 500, estimated to cost $250 million and $170 million, respectively, Mr.

May, 1992

Riksen and Mr. Kongsli contend.

Boat Workers Rally

For Luxury Tax Repeal

About 400 people consisting of boat workers, Senators and Con- gressmen rallied on the center steps of the U.S. Capitol Building to urge

Congress and the White House for the immediate repeal of the luxury tax, which has severely hurt the

U.S. boatbuilding industry.

The boat excise tax, intended to affect only the wealthy, has resulted in the loss of 20,000 to 25,000 mostly blue collar jobs nationwide in the boat manufacturing industry. The revenue negative tax has also caused many small, family-owned busi- nesses to shutdown.

Although Congressional and

White House proposals call for the repeal of the luxury tax on boats, the repeal has not yet occurred, and

Americans are still either unem- ployed or close to losing their jobs in these industries.

Senators John Breaux (D-LA),

John Chafee (R-RI), Bill Brad- ley (D-NJ), Daniel Patrick

Moynihan (D-NY), and Con.

David Bonior (D-MI) were among the legislators attending the rally.

Boatbuilders from Maryland, New

Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania,

North Carolina, and other states took part in the event.

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