Port Infrastructure
Port Fourchon is comprised of 1300 acres of developed land with over 83,000 linear feet of waterfront property that house state-of-the-art service facilities.
The port is in the final phase of constructing the Northern Expansion project, which more than doubled the port’s size and will further accommodate industry needs into the future.
For more information on port infrastructure, please visit the pages below.
- E-Slip
The E-Slip, a 500-foot-wide slip with legs between 24 and 28 feet deep, is situated on 400 acres of elevated land in the heart of Port Fourchon, providing over 18,600 linear feet of developed waterfront property and meeting a wide range of mineral exploration and production needs.
- Northern Expansion
Northern Expansion: Slips A, B, C, and D
When the Port Commission realized that deepwater Gulf of Mexico development would place unprecedented demand on port property, they began searching for a way to grow the port. Expanding north of the E-Slip development was the most feasible and cost-effective option, so the Port Commission acquired 4,000 acres north of the E-Slip, obtained the necessary permits to start construction, and began an aggressive port expansion effort.
Phase I of Port Fourchon’s Northern Expansion project, which included Slip A and Slip B, is complete. Slip A is 700 feet wide, nearly 2000 feet long, and 27 feet deep. Slip B is 700 feet wide, 7000 feet long, and 27 feet deep.
Construction of Slip C began in 2011. Slip C is 700 feet wide, 7000 feet long, and 27 feet deep. Multiple Slip C bulkhead projects are underway. Slip C adds over 15,000 linear feet of waterfront and 400 acres of developed property in Port Fourchon. With the addition of Slip C, Port Fourchon has 74,340 total linear feet of waterfront property (over 14 miles).
The bucket dredging project for Slip D began in 2015, carving out the next phase of port expansion. The port’s newest slip is 1,000 feet wide and nearly 4,000 feet long, a departure from the dimensions of Slips B and C (700 feet wide and 7,000 feet long) in response to the needs of the offshore supply vessels who frequent Port Fourchon. Slip D adds nearly 200 acres of developed property to the port and over 10,000 linear feet of waterfront in Port Fourchon.
- Belle Pass
Belle Pass and Other Port Waterways
Belle Pass into Port Fourchon
The port area encompasses many favorable water-related characteristics. One is the well-defined port entrance, Belle Pass, which is bordered by rock jetties that extend 2,600 feet into the Gulf of Mexico.
Within this 1,200 foot wide jetty system, the water is 27 feet deep, and the channel located in the center of Belle Pass is 300 feet wide.
Inland of the jetty system, within the port, the Bayou Lafourche channel is 24 feet deep and 300 feet wide.
Pass Fourchon, a secondary channel which branches off Belle Pass at its intersection with Bayou Lafourche, is 24 feet deep and 300 feet wide.
The E-Slip development is 24 feet deep throughout, with widths of 400 feet in the first leg and 500 feet in legs two and three.
Flotation Canal is 24 feet deep and 600 feet wide.
The Northern Expansion development is 24 feet deep throughout. Slips A, B, and C are 700 feet wide. Slip D is 1,000 feet wide.
As industry has moved into deepwater Gulf exploration and development, necessitating larger, deeper draft vessels, the Greater Lafourche Port Commission has responded with larger, wider, and deeper channels and is committed to continuing to make channel improvements to most efficiently meet Port Fourchon users’ needs.
- LOOP
Vessel at LOOP
Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), the nation’s only deepwater port, is located eighteen miles southeast of Port Fourchon and uses the port as its land base. Constructed by a group of major oil and pipeline companies in 110 feet of water, LOOP serves as the central unloading and distribution point for all incoming supertankers to the Gulf region.
Large supertankers continuously offload millions of barrels of crude oil into the LOOP pipeline. The oil then travels north to the Galliano Salt Dome in Lafourche Parish, where it is stored and piped to 50% of this nation’s refining capacity. LOOP handles approximately 10% of the country’s imported oil and about 10% of the nation’s domestic oil.