Gained one: Louisiana gained one more rig exploring for oil and gas this week, while the number of rigs across the country plummeted by 34. According to Houston-based oil and gas company Baker Hughes, there are 664 rigs in the U.S., down sharply from 698 on Dec. 31. This week’s totals include 516 rigs searching for oil and 148 looking for natural gas. Louisiana gained two rigs offshore and one in inland waters to offset the losses of two land rigs in north and south Louisiana. A year ago, 1,750 rigs were active. The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999.
Name change: The Division of Economic Development in LSU’s E.J. Ourso College of Business has changed its name to the LSU Economics & Policy Research Group to better encapsulate all the services the organization provides. According to a news release from LSU, the organization, which has long produced an employment forecast, has recently delved more into a wider variety of economics and policy-related projects in the sectors of labor, health and the environment. The organization also collects and analyzes survey data, and produces the Louisiana Economic Outlook each fall.
New project: Houston-based Westlake Chemical announced today it will launch a growth project after March in Lake Charles. FuelFix.com reports Westlake will begin construction in the second quarter on a 250 million-pound ethylene expansion at its Petro 1 plant in Lake Charles as part of a $350 million project. The Lake Charles project and the expansion of the company’s petrochemical plant in Calvert City, Kentucky, are both aimed at increasing Westlake’s capacity to produce ethylene, a primary building block of plastics. Many chemical companies in the U.S. have boosted their ethylene production because of the cheap and abundant natural gas from U.S. shale that serves as a primary feedstock in the petrochemical manufacturing process. Read the full story.
