Shipbuilding CEO takes SCIA’s top honor

According to reports, Gary Chouest was honored with the South Central Industrial Association’s award Thursday night. As president and CEO of Edison Chouest Offshore, Gary Chouest’s leadership has grown the two-vessel shrimping operation founded in 1960 by his father into a worldwide company whose more than 130 vessels are well recognized, SCIA President Chet Morrison told the crowd of about 400 gathered at Cypress Columns Wednesday night. The vessels, all built and owned by Edison Chouest Offshore, are designed for its client-companies’ needs. Most are built at its North American Shipbuilding facility in Larose, but also at North American Fabricators in Houma. The company also is creating new shipyards in Shreveport and Brazil, and is pursuing creation of a second shipyard in Houma, at the Port of Terrebonne. The latter, which could generate 750 to 1,000 local jobs, is under negotiation between Chouest and port officials. The Larose shipyard designed and built the first U.S. Antarctic icebreaking research vessel, the largest and most powerful anchor-handling towing supply vessel in the world, the first dynamically positioned vessel in the U.S. fleet, the world’s first floating production system installation vessel and the largest water-throw-capacity vessel in the U.S. fleet. Chouest developed C-Port at Port Fourchon, the first one-stop multiple-service terminal facility of its kind. It set new standards for efficiency and safety, reducing vessels’ in-port turnaround time. The concept grew with C-Port 2, complete with specialized slips for the largest deepwater offshore vessels. Subsidiary C Logistics provides strategic support services for drilling, production and construction projects in both deepwater and shelf locations in the Gulf of Mexico. Marine Technologies was formed to develop marine-control systems. Other Chouest-affiliated companies include International Marine Systems, which specializes in marine-electronics products and services; and Sealand Mechanical, which has a fully staffed service department specializing in commercial, industrial, offshore and supermarket heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and refrigeration systems and service.