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Sasol, the former South African state oil company, which is embarking on what could be the single-largest foreign investment project in U.S. history.

Sasol is building a 3,034-acre energy complex near a bayou in Lake Charles, La. Tapping into cheap, fracked natural gas as well as the pipeline and shipping infrastructure along the Gulf Coast, Sasol plans to spend as much as $21 billion there.

It is expensive, elaborate and dirty work. Sasol plans to reduce, or "crack," the gas into ethylene, a raw chemical used in plastics, paints and food packaging. It also plans to convert the gas into high-quality diesel and other fuels, using a process once advanced by Nazi scientists to power Panzer tanks. The state of Louisiana is even kicking in $2 billion of incentives to make it happen.

This is engineering on a scale so large that it requires closing 26 public roads, buying out 883 public-property lots, and hiring 7,000 workers at peak construction. Some 100 additional trucks will be on the road each day once the complex is completed. Entrepreneurs have already begun construction of a "man camp" to house 4,000 temporary workers streaming into Lake Charles for this and other projects.

In that way, Sasol is a metaphor for what we don't yet understand about America's gas boom. Most know what fracking has meant for oil and gas prices. But because much of the work hasn't started yet, few appreciate the true extent of the industrialization that's about to begin.

So let's put it this way: We are building a Qatar on the Bayou. From whole cloth, companies are laying new cities of fertilizer plants, boron manufacturers, methanol terminals, polymer plants, ammonia factories and paper-finishing facilities. In computer renderings, the Sasol site looks like a fearsome, steel-fitted Angkor Wat.

In all, some 66 industrial projects—worth some $90 billion—will be breaking ground over the next five years in Louisiana, according to the Greater Baton Rouge Industry Alliance. Tens of billions of other new investments could be coming, says Louisiana's economic development secretary, Stephen Moret. How many projects will actually get built remains to be seen.

Assuming that most will, you realize we are still probably underestimating the positive impact of the gas boom on both local and national economies. The entire GDP of the state of Louisiana is about $250 billion annually.

"As an economist, I can only say,‘'Wow. Holy Cow,'" said Loren Scott, a Louisiana economist who has studied the state for 40 years. "We typically measured expansion in terms of hundreds of millions of dollars. Something like that makes your eyes bug out." He expects, for instance, that once 10-year tax-abatement deals expire, schools boards will "find themselves with a bonanza."

Similarly, we probably underestimate the deepening shortage of skilled laborers needed to design, weld and operate these mechanical beasts. Wages are already pushing higher, which could delay or even squelch some projects.....

.....U.S. sanctions forced Sasol to leave Iran, where it purchased crude oil for a South African refinery and invested in a chemical venture with a state-backed company.

Iranian imams do not make the best bedfellows—which is partly why Sasol Chief Executive David Constable appreciates doing business in America. "If you're going to build a plant, from a logistics standpoint…it is No. 1 in the world," said Mr. Constable in an interview. Access to cheap gas, customers, capital, rule of law and ease of building "ticks all the boxes very nicely. It couldn't have happened to a better country."

Louisiana's waterways are a huge plus, making it easy for Sasol to ship its products via barge. They also make it easier to deliver the four 2,000-ton chemical reactors needed for the plants. The docks are just 1½ miles from the Sasol site.

Then there are the gas pipelines, which make it easy to pull in gas from the shale fields of Texas.

"That's why it's so much more difficult for a China or Europe to jump into shale gas in a big way. If you look at the natural-gas pipelines around the country, it's like a spider web," Mr. Constable said.

Just last month:
Mississippi, Louisiana border verging on an oil boom, Sun Herald reports

"The Sun Herald reports oil and gas companies are drilling more wells and extending leases in key areas of the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale along the Louisiana and Mississippi border, signs the Gulf Coast could be close to a shale drilling boom of its own.

The Gulfport-Biloxi, Miss. newspaper draws comparisons to the booming Bakken Shale oil patch in North Dakota....."

http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/ ... der_v.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Pretty soon N Dakota isn't going to be the only place with man camps. Wonder what JSO thinks of this..

Outstanding. Someone told me recently that there is about to be a big boom in the Lake Charles area. I guess this might be what they were talking about.

You wanna know what the single largest Foreign Investment project in French History was...
The Telecom/Broadband build-out project in Iraq circa 2002
which we carpet bombed in 2003

God forbid we should ever get our own vile medicine...

And:
Lake Charles will be an armpit when this project is over
And Louisiana will have further disgraced itself and sunk farther into the abyss of swill as it already clings dangerously to the edge of the bowl

Hooray....


Louisiana in a picture

Chizzang wrote:You wanna know what the single largest Foreign Investment project in French History was...
The Telecom/Broadband build-out project in Iraq circa 2002
which we carpet bombed in 2003

God forbid we should ever get our own vile medicine...

And:
Lake Charles will be an armpit when this project is over
And Louisiana will have further disgraced itself and sunk farther into the abyss of swill as it already clings dangerously to the edge of the bowl

Hooray....


Louisiana in a picture

Self-loathing POTY

travelinman67 wrote:
Self-loathing POTY

Truth... my friend just the truth

Chizzang wrote:

travelinman67 wrote:
Self-loathing POTY

Truth... my friend just the truth

Show me one post you've ever made supporting gas or oil extraction on the lower 48.

Just one.

travelinman67 wrote:

Chizzang wrote:
Truth... my friend just the truth

Show me one post you've ever made supporting gas or oil extraction on the lower 48.

Just one.

I believe I was enthusiastic and very supportive of the extraction in North Dakota and Throughout the Mid-west and Texas even...

I'm only against it when it happens west of Boise

Chizzang wrote:

travelinman67 wrote:
Show me one post you've ever made supporting gas or oil extraction on the lower 48.

Just one.

I believe I was enthusiastic and very supportive of the extraction in North Dakota and Throughout the Mid-west and Texas even...

I'm only against it when it happens west of Boise

Pifflewog!

Lake Charles is east of Boise.

I never recall you ever supporting extraction or processing in the lower 48.

travelinman67 wrote:

Chizzang wrote:
I believe I was enthusiastic and very supportive of the extraction in North Dakota and Throughout the Mid-west and Texas even...

I'm only against it when it happens west of Boise

Pifflewog!

Lake Charles is east of Boise.

I never recall you ever supporting extraction or processing in the lower 48.

try to stay with me...

Just because I'm "snarking" at something doesn't mean I'm against it
The great people of Louisiana can do whatever the sam hell they please to their armpit of a state

Chizzang wrote:

travelinman67 wrote:
Pifflewog!

Lake Charles is east of Boise.

I never recall you ever supporting extraction or processing in the lower 48.

try to stay with me...

Just because I'm "snarking" at something doesn't mean I'm against it
The great people of Louisiana can do whatever the sam hell they please to their armpit of a state

Other than a three day drunk-over in N.O., when have you ever been to LA.

LA is a great place with good people. I'd choose it any day over the left coast or entitlement N.E.

Louisiana will be fine. It's had natural gas and oil exploration industries for a long time. There is absolutely no doubt that the relationships have been a net benefit to the State as well as its people and it's not a close call. It'll still have recreational fishing that's as good as it gets in the United States and probably the best overall. It'll still have a very spicy, joie de vivre culture that's a blast to live in. And it'll still have plenty of places you can go to to enjoy the outdoors, etc. Scenes like those below will still be as they are.

Won't have mountains if you like that sort of thing. But that's not because of the oil and gas industry.

Good luck with all that John....
And I wouldn't eat either one of those fish pictured - catch and release carp - but thanks anyway



This couple is enthusiastic about the ethnic diversity too...

Best overall fishing.

Grizalltheway wrote:Best overall fishing.

He meant best overall Noodlin'...

Chizzang wrote:Good luck with all that John....
And I wouldn't eat either one of those fish pictured - catch and release carp - but thanks anyway

It's obvious you've never spent any time in LA...

...you'd rather just spew libtard bigoted hyperbole.

Nice form, Hippie...

travelinman67 wrote:

Chizzang wrote:Good luck with all that John....
And I wouldn't eat either one of those fish pictured - catch and release carp - but thanks anyway

It's obvious you've never spent any time in LA...

...you'd rather just spew libtard bigoted hyperbole.

Nice form, Hippie...

Actually I have family in Metairie La...
So yeah, I kinda do know Louisiana pretty well actually (but nice try)


and secondly: We all know how this works - I troll around after John Stwrong and have been for years - it's what I do... Its kind of a hobby of sorts and he doesn't care in fact he seems to like it

He's a good sport...

Grizalltheway wrote:Best overall fishing.

That would be my bet. It's got the most productive environment.

Now, if you like a certain species or set of species that doesn't occur in Louisiana of course you're going to like places where those species occur better. But among States in the United States you're not going to beat it for just total action, numbers of fish caught per angler, etc.

And I wouldn't eat either one of those fish pictured - catch and release carp - but thanks anyway

I'm sure you really realize that the first picture is a red drum or redfish. Those became so popular in restaurants during the 1980s that they had to outlaw commercial harvest of them. And bluegill? Small, but excellent eating. I know you really know that.

JohnStOnge wrote:

Grizalltheway wrote:Best overall fishing.

That would be my bet. It's got the most productive environment.

Now, if you like a certain species or set of species that doesn't occur in Louisiana of course you're going to like places where those species occur better. But among States in the United States you're not going to beat it for just total action, numbers of fish caught per angler, etc.

Native Westslope cutts and redband Rainbows
Grayling
National tournament bass fishing events
Steelhead
Ocean and river salmon
Tuna
Sturgeon
Smelt
Shad
Halibut
Squid
Sight fishing to carp
Walleye
Farm ponds
Marine fisheries of all sorts
Burbot
Desert spring creeks
Massive freestone river systems
Alpine Golden trout

JohnStOnge wrote:

Grizalltheway wrote:Best overall fishing.

That would be my bet. It's got the most productive environment.

Now, if you like a certain species or set of species that doesn't occur in Louisiana of course you're going to like places where those species occur better. But among States in the United States you're not going to beat it for just total action, numbers of fish caught per angler, etc.

Fishing pristine mountain lakes, rivers and streams>>>>>>>>> fishing swamps and muddy ponds.

Grizalltheway wrote:

JohnStOnge wrote:
That would be my bet. It's got the most productive environment.

Now, if you like a certain species or set of species that doesn't occur in Louisiana of course you're going to like places where those species occur better. But among States in the United States you're not going to beat it for just total action, numbers of fish caught per angler, etc.

Fishing pristine mountain lakes, rivers and streams>>>>>>>>> fishing swamps and muddy ponds.

I was looking in the gin clear waters of a low land lake today and contemplating the life forms. Trout, various minnow species, crawdads, snakes, frogs, turtles, leaches, damselflies, dragon flies, mayflies, caddis, chironomids, water boatmen, scuds, snails...

Jeeze now you ^ two are just showing off...

Guys, if you want to say you prefer the scenery while fishing in a particular environment that's fine. What I'm talking about is catching fish. It's hard to get quantitative data to compare States in terms of recreational fishing catch per unit effort but one source that at least provides SOME information is the National Marine Fisheries Service Recreational Fisheries Statistics (NMFS) site at https://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/recreation ... ries/index" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; . It just deals with saltwater fishing and also it does not include all the States. But what it shows is consistent with what I'm saying. If you use the queries there and calculate the NMFS number of fish per angler trip for each State for which they have data for the most recent year for which they have data (2013) this is what you get:

Louisiana 9.3
Virginia 9.2
Maryland 8.3
Connecticut 7.4
South Carolina 7.3
Alabama 7.3
North Carolina 6.5
Florida 6.5
New Hampshire 6.1
Mississippi 5.7
New Jersey 5.4
Georgia 5.3
New York 4.9
Delaware 4.8
Rhode Island 4.6
Massachusetts 4.4
Maine 3.3
Hawaii 2.6

I must admit that I did not expect to see Virginia and Maryland compare as well as they did. But, as expected, Louisiana was at the top.

No west coast States there but I was able to find some estimates from 1995 - 1997 when California was included. During those years Louisiana was at 10.0, 9.0, and 9.9 fish per angler trip while California was at 3.9, 4.3, and 4.2.

Louisiana also has highly productive freshwater fishing. Some anecdotal stuff: This past week I got a text from my buddy from Lake Charles saying he and his son caught 82 "keeper" bass and "30+" crappie on Memorial Day. He said two guys at his campground had caught over 200 bluegill the previous day and over 90 that day. My wife came home talking about a guy at her office catching something like 160 crappie. Meanwhile I'd estimate that I caught 200 to 300 bluegill on three trips to Lacassine refuge last week (I kept 47 and I'd be being conservative in saying that I kept one in five or six).

I have no doubt that I caught over a thousand fish in Louisiana in 2013 and am on pace to do it again in 2014. Honestly ask yourself how often you've done that in the State you're in. And if I fished saltwater at all I'd catch a lot more because the freshwater action slows down during mid summer and the saltwater action does not.

When it comes to just sheer action and catching fish you're not going to beat Louisiana among States in the United States except maybe Alaska. I say that because, even though the Alaskan environment is not nearly as productive per unit area as the Louisiana environment is, I'd guess that there is little fishing pressure considering the size of the area involved. Also I would expect that a high proportion of Alaskan anglers are subsistence fishermen who really know what they're doing. I would not be surprised if Alaska's fish per trip is higher, but I also would not be surprised if it's not.

If you're talking about liking the scenery you see while fishing in some other States better that's a different issue.

*BAM..!


What say you Western Anglers...
Swamp bottom Catfish and Muddy Carp by the ton
or pristine blue streams and sparse rainbow trout