Louisiana-based Chet Morrison Contractors, known as Morrison Energy, has confirmed the load-out of the first modules for a project aiming to up the resiliency ante of Port Fourchon in the Pelican State.
According to Morrison Energy, the first completed modules for the Shell Fourchon Resiliency project are being loaded in Harvey and transported to Port Fourchon for installation. The U.S. company claims to be executing its scope of work safely and on schedule, targeting commissioning of the new facility by summer 2026.
Shell Pipeline Company LP is said to be set on constructing a new elevated oil metering facility at Fourchon Junction to enhance regional oil flow capacity, system functionality, and reliability. This project entails the construction of around 500 tons of modules in Houma and Harvey.
Morrison was hired by Shell last year to oversee every phase of project execution, entailing comprehensive management, scheduling, subcontractor coordination, site development, and logistics oversight, and extending to prefabrication of roughly 500 tons of modular components, along with instrumentation and electrical integration, sub-foundation construction, selective demolition, and installation of interconnecting piping systems.
The new metering facility is expected to act as a key checkpoint for monitoring and regulating oil flow through multiple offshore pipelines, improving efficiency and safety within the Gulf’s transport systems and enhancing flood and storm resilience. The list of partners in the project encompasses Shell, Chevron, Danos, and the Greater Lafourche Port Commission to use dredged materials from port expansion to create new, healthy marshland.
The nature-based approach is aiming to protect critical infrastructure, improve the environment, and enhance community resilience from Fourchon to Larose. The Water Institute of the Gulf is working across the coastal zone with ports and industry to help address some of the challenges faced by infrastructure in these landscapes.
As a result, the Institute has worked to create a public-private partnership with the Port, Shell, Chevron, and Danos to determine the best, nature-based way to use the dredged material to protect the port’s critical infrastructure, improve the environment; make communities from Fourchon to Larose more resilient; and yield carbon capture sequestration (CCS) benefits.
As South Louisiana’s Port Fourchon is perceived to play a critical national economic security role by providing the U.S. with approximately 18% of its total oil supply and servicing over 90% of the deepwater oil production from the Gulf of America (the U.S. Gulf of Mexico), this project is deemed to be a long-term investment in regional energy stability, helping to streamline operations for offshore production platforms and reduce bottlenecks across crude transportation corridors.
With the completion targeted for the third quarter of 2026, the project is considered to be aligned with Shell’s strategy to upgrade existing energy transport assets in light of the evolving production demands and environmental challenges in the U.S. Gulf region.