Moving Forward

As Lynn Lejeune takes over as executive director of the Port of Krotz Springs, she will inherit an operation that could become one of Acadiana’s busiest industrial sites.

The Atchafalaya River port will be the site of six above-ground crude oil storage tanks and other facilities that are part of a $400 million Hazelwood Energy Hub facility for fuel storage, distribution and crude oil blending. The company will also use four salt dome caverns to store different crude oil varieties to be blended together to meet specific needs of Gulf coast refineries.

Hazelwood will have access to an extensive network of five major pipelines and will operate a barge loading and unloading facility at the Port of Krotz Springs.

Lejeune, a former mayor of Eunice, was director of the Greater St. Landry Chamber of Commerce before accepting the new position. She is replacing Gary Soileau, who retired June 30 after more than 25 years as the port’s director. “The Hazelwood project, as well as the existing companies that sit on the Port of Krotz Springs, will be instrumental in growing the 

local community, as well as those of the parish and the state,” she said.

Hazelwood anticipates creating 130 new permanent jobs with an average of annual salary of $63,500 plus benefits. There will be approximately 150 indirect jobs created plus an additional 200 jobs in the construction phase of $130 million in upgrades to a new barge terminal and related infrastructure.

Hazelwood Energy Hub President Bob Edmundson said the company’s development team considered locations in several neighboring states, but, the efforts of St. Landry Parish Economic Development (SLED) and Louisiana Economic Development (LED) were instrumental in bringing this project to St. Landry Parish.

“The Hazelwood Energy Hub will certainly be viewed as a pioneer in this area as they begin the development of storage, blending and transporting to areas beyond the Gulf Coast refineries,” in Lejeune’s view. “I commend Bob Edmundson and his team as they proceed to bring the largest development of this nature to St. Landry Parish.”

Facilities at the 135-acre Port of Krotz Springs, which was created by legislative act in 1956, played a considerable part in Hazelwood’s decision. Another 200 acres have recently been purchased for future development.

Businesses currently operating at the port include the ALON USA refinery which produces gasoline, diesel fuels, petrochemicals, and other products. ALON recently underwent a substantial turn-around upgrade and is close to announcing an additional major expansion project. Additionally, the port is home to Bunge Corporation, which operates grain elevators there; carbon black producer Cabot Corporation; Acadiana Shell and Limestone, provider of limestone, aggregate, and a variety of road-building and drainage materials; as well as barge mooring and fleeting services and warehousing.

The port currently handles more than three million tons of cargo each year.  A 145-foot-wide general cargo dock extends some 200 feet into the river. The Atchafalaya is 1,000 feet wide at the port site. It is maintained at a minimum 12-foot depth.

Some 300 people work at the port and that number will grow with the Hazelwood project and attraction of other new businesses.

“Although the Port of Krotz Springs, along with some of the other unique industrial development resources in east St Landry Parish, have historically flown under the radar I believe that is now quickly changing,” said Bill Rodier, SLED executive director.

“With the dome storage capacities for natural gas feedstock and oil storage, rail access, five pipelines, divided state four-lane roads, new heavy industrial park development, a growing ALON, and, of course, the port, this corridor has the potential to be one of the most robust industrial corridors in the state over the next five to ten years,” he said.

Lejeune believes successful development at the port and nearby will benefit not only St. Landry Parish, but all of Acadiana.

“Socially and economically our parishes are all deeply connected,” she said.  “As we partner with nearby parishes and local community leaders we know as one area grows and prospers it certainly impacts the entire area.

“We have the opportunity and capacity to do significant things, to carry out economic development activities intelligently and energetically,” she said.