completions (wellhead on the sea floor, with no fixed platform overhead). 

 These facilities have minor employment requirements. 



Construction of a deepwater port may take about 2 years. The off- 

 shore buoy itself is likely to be built in an existing marine construction 

 yard, away from the port site, thus creating minimal onsite employment. The 

 pipelines will have employment consequences as described above. Onsite 

 employment required to construct a deepwater port may be roughly 1,000 

 (with a peak force of 1,500) if port facilities alone are built [27]. 



If storage facilities or refineries are also provided, the employment 

 consequences would be as described in paragraph A. 11 (storage) or A. 12 

 (refineries). Deepwater ports, such as those proposed by LOOP or Seadock 

 would require about 300 workers each to maintain, monitor, and operate the 

 facilities, according to one estimate [27]. 



A. 6. SERVICE BASES: These essential facilities, which must be located on 

 the coast, may be temporary or permanent. They usually serve single fields 

 and attempt to locate as close to the lease area as possible. 



Temporary service bases support exploratory operations and last only 

 so long as exploration continues. Temporary bases use existing facilities 

 insofar as possible, so any construction is likely to require at most a few 

 months and to provide few jobs. During exploratory drilling, the number of 

 employees depends on the number of rigs being serviced. At one temporary 

 base in Florida, for example, employment was 32, including 12 positions 

 filled by local residents [28]. 



If exploration leads to commercial production, the temporary base may 

 evolve into a permanent service base, which will remain throughout the life 

 of the production platforms it services. Base size depends on the avail- 

 ability of services from nearby companies: large bases are more likely to 

 be constructed at less developed ports, where fewer such services are 

 available. Construction of a permanent base may take up to a year, with 

 average employment of about 20 and maximum of about 90 [10]. 



After construction is completed, employment at service bases fluctuates 

 with the level of activity on the production platforms being serviced. One 

 study estimates that employment may be more than twice as great during 

 drilling and workover as during production [28]. 



A. 7. MARINE REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE: Marine repair and maintenance services, 

 located along the coast in developed harbors, are needed throughout the life 

 of oil and gas fields. Although these services are already available in 

 many ports, 0CS development brings another customer whose specialized 

 demands and number of vessels may require construction of some additional 

 facilities. Where no marine repair and maintenance facilities are avail- 

 able, oil companies (or contractors) may build them in conjunction with 

 their service base. 



49 



