Within the United States there are four large fabrication yards 

 which receive all the major platform business. Three of these are on 

 the Gulf Coast where the bulk of U.S. offshore activity has long been 

 concentrated, and one is on the Pacific Coast. Two of the Gulf Coast 

 yards dominate the U.S. platform fabrication business -- Brown and Root, 

 whose yard is near Houston, Texas, and J. Ray McDermott, whose yard is 

 just east of Morgan City, Louisiana. The third Gulf Coast yard, operated 

 by Avondale Ship Yards, is also near Morgan City. The fourth major U.S. 

 yard serving the west coast market is owned by Kaiser Steel Corporation 

 at Oakland, California. Each of the Gulf Coast yards occupies about 

 1,000 acres of land, and each has the capacity for building two or more 

 platforms simultaneously. 



The Gulf Coast yards have fabricated platforms for both the U.S. 

 and international oil and gas drilling. Approximately 20 percent of 

 Brown and Root's production of platforms from their two Gulf Coast yards 

 are for foreign countries [37]. The few platforms installed in Alaska 

 have been built in the "lower 48." Kaiser has built at least six of the 

 14 platforms located in the Cook Inlet area of Alaska [38]. 



The Kaiser yard recently completed the world's largest platform 

 superstructure (jacket), which has been installed in Exxon's Hondo field 

 in the Santa Barbara channel— it is 865 feet high and installed in a 

 water depth of 850 feet which is nearly twice the depth of any other 

 offshore jacket. The total height of the Hondo structure is 945 feet. 



Unless the demand for platforms in new U.S. frontier areas is 

 heavy, based on large finds, their fabrication can easily be handled in 

 the four existing major yards. Two large yards have been proposed by 

 Brown and Root: a 980 acre site at Cape Charles (Northampton County), 

 Virginia [39], and a 400 acre site at Astoria, Oregon (to be operated by 

 a Brown and Root subsidiary. Pacific Fabricators, Inc.). These facilities 

 were proposed recognizing the lengthy process preceeding construction and 

 in anticipation of possible large finds in offshore frontier areas. 

 Each proposal includes a dry dock so that large, self-floating platforms 

 can be fabricated. These yards could both begin operations in 1978 and 

 ultimately have an employment of 1,200 people or more. Both yards were 

 initiated (i.e., land optioned) before leasing and exploratory drilling 

 occurred. 



Description 



Fabrication yards occupy from 200 to 1,000 acres of cleared level 

 land adjacent to a navigable waterway of adequate depth (usually 15 to 

 30 feet). Major facilities may include a dry dock (graving dock), 

 jacket-fabricating area, pile-fabrication rack, deck- and modular- 

 assembly building, pipe-rolling mill, plate and pipe shop, painting and 

 sandblasting shops, electrical shops, and warehouses. Approximately 60 



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