Too often in business, one industry’s misfortune often becomes another company’s opportunity. The 2005 hurricane season, so devastating to Louisiana business and residents, also wreaked havoc with oil and gas interests off the state’s coast and across the Gulf of Mexico.
Hurricanes in the Gulf have always impacted Louisiana's oil and gas industry, but never to the degree of Katrina and Rita. Three main areas affected were oil and gas production and transportation, refineries, and electricity generation and transmission. These recent hurricanes destroyed a combined total of 109 production platforms and five drilling rigs and damaged an additional fifty platforms and 19 drilling rigs. This is significant because this damage reduced production in the Gulf by ninty percent. The Gulf of Mexico is a major producer of domestic energy with 29 percent of the country's crude oil and 20 percent of the natural gas.
The damage unleashed by Mother Nature on the industry's infrastructure provided SMI Companies Offshore Division the unique opportunity to help restore order, rebuild facilities and renew much needed energy production. |
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SMI's access to hundreds of offshore workers and the equipment to support them allowed the company to respond immediately and forcefully to the need of their customers after these storms. The company's new 10 acre site, complete with 450 feet of steel bulkhead and deep water access proved to be the ideal facility to launch a rebuilding effort in the Gulf.
By helping rebuild the tattered and tangled decks and platforms mangled by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita the company experienced dramatic growth at its Berwick, La., location on the west bank of the Atchafalaya River.
The company's management team is dedicated to continuing to add capability to this division so that as future challenges emerge in the oil and gas industry, the company will be there to help any companies needing the top flight services provided by SMI Companies and all of its affiliates.
For more information about SMI Companies, please contact Dana Kiffe at SMI Companies, 1456 Highway 317 South, Franklin, LA 70538, telephone: (888) 334-0633 or email us at info@smicompanies.com. |
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