Port Fourchon is

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

’s southernmost port, located on the southern tip of

Lafourche Parish Lafourche Parish (french: Paroisse de la Fourche) is a parish located in the south of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Thibodaux. The parish was formed in 1807. It was originally the northern part of Lafourche Interior Parish, whi ...

, on the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

. It is a seaport, with significant petroleum industry traffic from offshore Gulf oil platforms and drilling rigs as well as the

Louisiana Offshore Oil Port The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) is a deepwater port in the Gulf of Mexico 29 kilometers (18 nautical miles) off the coast of Louisiana near the town of Port Fourchon. LOOP provides tanker offloading and temporary storage services for cr ...

pipeline. Fourchon's primary service markets are domestic deepwater oil and gas exploration, drilling, and production in the Gulf. Port Fourchon currently services over 90% of the Gulf of Mexico's deepwater oil production. There are over 600

oil platform An oil platform (or oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, and similar terms) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platfor ...

s within a 40-mile radius of Port Fourchon. This area furnishes 16 to 18 percent of the US oil supply.www.portfourchon.com
/ref> Port Fourchon is part of the Houma– Bayou Cane–

Thibodaux Thibodaux ( ) is a city in, and the parish seat of, Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, United States, along the banks of Bayou Lafourche in the northwestern part of the parish. The population was 15,948 at the 2020 census. Thibodaux is a principal city ...

Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally Incorporated town, incorporate ...

History

Port Fourchon was developed as a multi-use facility. It has historically been a land base for offshore oil support services as well as a land base for the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP). In addition, there is commercial and recreational fishing, a foreign cargo shipping terminal, and an area for recreation and tourism. The Board of Commissioners of the Greater Lafourche Port Commission is charged with ensuring the progress and continued development of Port Fourchon and the South Lafourche Leonard Miller, Jr. Airport. Nine members seated at-large comprise the Commission in lettered seats A through I. Every six years, the people of the Tenth Ward of Lafourche Parish elect all nine commissioners. The Greater Lafourche Port Commission, established by the state of Louisiana in 1960 as a political subdivision of the state of Louisiana, exercises jurisdiction over the Tenth Ward of Lafourche Parish south of the Intracoastal Waterway, including the seaport and the airport. The Port Commission facilitates the economic growth of the communities in which it operates by maximizing the flow of trade and commerce, largely through Port Fourchon. Bristow Helicopters and Petroleum Helicopters International Inc. both operate helicopters out of the heliport at Port Fourchon that ferry people and supplies to the Offshore Oil Drilling and Production Platform Rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, such at the BP Thunderhorse PDQ that lies 150 miles to the South. Port Fourchon was damaged by

Hurricane Lili Hurricane Lili was the second costliest, deadliest, and strongest hurricane of the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season, only surpassed by Hurricane Isidore, which affected the same areas around a week before Lili. Lili was the twelfth named storm, f ...

in October 2002. It did not take a direct hit by

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

on August 29, 2005, and was only slightly damaged. Sixteen years after Katrina, the center of category 4

Hurricane Ida Hurricane Ida was a deadly and extremely destructive Category 4 Atlantic hurricane in 2021 that became the second-most damaging and intense hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. state of Louisiana on record, behind Hurricane Katrina in 200 ...

made landfall in Port Fourchon at 11:54 am CDT, August 29, 2021, with sustained winds of 150 mph (240 km/h).

Geography

Port Fourchon is a short distance off

Louisiana Highway 1 Louisiana Highway 1 (LA 1) is a state highway in Louisiana. At , it is the longest numbered highway of any class in Louisiana. It runs diagonally across the state, connecting the oil and gas fields near the island of Grand Isle with the no ...

(LA 1), the road to Grand Isle, via Louisiana Highway 3090. It is the southernmost point of Louisiana accessible by automobile. As a critical infrastructure of national significance, LA 1 provides a vital link to Port Fourchon. As of mid-2008, $350 million from state bonds and federal assistance has been budgeted to begin replacing a 17-mile (27-km) stretch of LA 1, the road into Port Fourchon, because that part of the highway is not inside the hurricane levee system that protects inland communities, and the highway is prone to flooding from

storm surge A storm surge, storm flood, tidal surge, or storm tide is a coastal flood or tsunami-like phenomenon of rising water commonly associated with low-pressure weather systems, such as cyclones. It is measured as the rise in water level above the n ...

, even from

tropical cyclones A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Dependi ...

some distance away. The replacement will be an elevated highway that can stand up to a major storm and remain open even if the land around it floods. A seven-mile (11-km) section of the project from Leeville to Port Fourchon, including a higher bridge across

Bayou Lafourche Bayou Lafourche ( ), originally called Chetimachas River or La Fourche des Chetimaches, (the fork of the Chitimacha), is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 20, 2011 b ...

, is under construction and scheduled for completion in 2011; this segment will be funded by tolls. The bridge over Bayou Lafourche, funded by tolls, opened July 8, 2009. Funds have not been secured for the segment between Golden Meadow and Leeville.

References

External links

Greater Lafourche Port Commission website

* {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana Port cities and towns of the United States Gulf Coast Unincorporated communities in Houma – Thibodaux metropolitan area Unincorporated communities in Louisiana Populated coastal places in Louisiana Ports of the Gulf of Mexico

History

Geography

See also

References

External links