La Oil Port In Great Shape Despite Recession

JEN DEGREGORIO

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — When the nation's first offshore oil port opened off the coast of Louisiana in 1981, the country was still reeling from an energy crisis that had sapped fuel consumption and slashed commodity prices.

No market meant no profits for the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, a platform standing 18 miles south of Grand Isle in the Gulf of Mexico. The port reportedly lost more than $40 million during its first full year of operation and struggled to turn a profit for years after that.

Nearly three decades later, LOOP is lucrative. Demand for foreign oil has doubled since the 1980s, and the port receives about as much imported crude as it can handle.

LOOP is now awash in profits, with $200 million in cash reserves at the beginning of 2008, according to Moody's Investors Services. LOOP's owners — Shell Oil Co., Marathon Oil Co. and Murphy Oil Corp. — shared $70 million in dividends from port operations in 2007, according to Moody's.

With dependence on foreign oil expected to hold steady for at least another decade, LOOP plans to keep raking in the dough. The port is finishing up a $180 million expansion that could bring even more crude through LOOP. Six 600,000-barrel storage tanks are already up and running, and another six should be built by the end of the year.