It has been forecast $50 billion will be invested in Louisiana in the next three to four years. This large investment will result in new manufacturing facilities and expansions to existing ones. At least seven of the previously announced projects in Louisiana include a capital investment of more than $1 billion each.
South African-based Sasol Ltd.’s proposed natural gas processing plant near Lake Charles accounts for $21 billion of the total investment. Magnolia LNG plans to erect a $2.2 billion gas liquefaction production and export facility, also in Lake Charles, while CF Industries is spending $2.1 billion to expand its nitrogen complex in Donaldsonville.
A combination of low-cost natural resources, a better business climate and global geopolitical shifts are said to be aiding expansions now and into the future. In addition, technology is surging Louisiana’s manufacturing boom along.
GIS technology facilitates expansion, investment
One piece of technology in particular, computerized Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, is leading the way for additional expansion and investment. GIS allows the tracking of data for available sites, river hydrology, resident industry, transportation routes, pipelines and socioeconomic statistics. GIS technology digitally creates and manipulates spatial areas that may be jurisdictional, purpose or application oriented. Generally, GIS technology is custom designed for an organization. Therefore, a GIS developed for an application, jurisdiction, enterprise or purpose may not be necessarily interoperable or compatible with a GIS that has been developed for some other application, jurisdiction, enterprise or purpose.
Launched in 2009, the Louisiana Economic Development GIS Development Initiative has the purpose of building state-of-the-art geospatial technologies to support Louisiana Economic Development’s mission at the state, regional and local levels.
GIS technology eases the burden on analysts by giving project managers easy, Web-based tools to quickly find location sensitive information. First, GIS identifies real estate sites for collocation, recruitment and expansion projects. Customized lists and maps based on products, companies or specific infrastructure needs are then created and upstream/downstream opportunities are realized — connecting suppliers to customers and customers to suppliers.
“We have been working with industry early on to see where in our state is best to locate particular sectors based on needs for their industrial projects,” said Tommy Kurtz (now former executive director of Louisiana Economic Development’s Business Expansion and Retention Group) at BIC Alliance’s recent State of the Industry Update. “We believe our GIS technology is giving Louisiana the advantage.”
Many recent large-scale projects in Louisiana used the GIS mapping technology to identify unlisted sites close to needed products. Additional benefits of the Louisiana Economic Development GIS technology include:
• Searching survey profiles and product lists on more than 1,300 companies and NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) codes.
• Searching 800-plus product lists/chemicals, which is helpful for identifying collocation projects requiring chemical inputs, outputs and intermediary products or finished goods.
Gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology has also been an invaluable resource during Louisiana’s industrial resurgence.
“By incorporating GTL technology into the USA’s energy mix, states such as Louisiana will be able to advance the country’s energy independence through a diversification of supply,” said Sasol Ltd. CEO David Constable. “We greatly appreciate the support we have received from the State of Louisiana and Gov. Jindal, along with the people of Calcasieu Parish, in reaching these significant project milestones. We look forward to furthering our interests in the region.”
For more information, visit www.louisianaeconomicdevelopment.com or call (800) 450-8115.
