P’cola undersea pipe plant

For the past five-plus years, the Port of Pensacola, Fla., has been a service depot for a wide range of ships and vessels that service exploration, surveying, pipe-laying and harvesting of oil and gas. Port client Offshore Inland Marine & Oilfield Services will team with Houston-based DeepFlex to build a major undersea pipe manufacturing plant tentatively scheduled to open in the latter part of 2015. “It’s a huge economic development project,” said Port Director Amy Miller. The flexible composite pipe – to be stamped with ‘Made In Pensacola’ - will be deployed to oil and gas production projects across the world. The plant is expected to produce 62 miles of special pipe a year. Overall, offshore expenditures in the Gulf of Mexico are expected to reach $167 billion from 2013-16. It can only grow higher as more areas of the Gulf are explored, Miller said. “There is evidence that there is oil and natural gas producing capacity in the eastern Gulf from the Louisiana/Mississippi border eastward to Florida territorial waters.” (Source: 850 Magazine Feb-March 2015)