The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) is a deepwater port in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana near the town of Port Fourchon. LOOP provides tanker offloading and temporary storage services for crude oil transported on some of the largest tankers in the world. Most tankers offloading at LOOP are too large for U.S. inland ports. LOOP handles 13 percent of the nation's foreign oil, about 1.2 million barrels a day, and connects by pipeline to 35 percent of the U.S. refining capability. Seaport, a painting by Claude Lorrain, 1638 A port is a facility at the edge of an ocean, river, or lake for receiving ships and transferring cargo and persons to them. ... Gulf of Mexico. ... State nickname: Pelican State Other U.S. States Capital Baton Rouge Largest city New Orleans, officially (currently Baton Rouge due to the evacuation of New Orleans) Governor Kathleen Blanco (D) Official languages None; English and French de facto Area 134,382 km² (31st)  - Land 112,927 km²  - Water 21,455... Port Fourchon is a small community on the southern tip of Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, on the Gulf of Mexico. ... Tanker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Nodding donkey pumping an oil well near Sarnia, Ontario, 2001 Petroleum (from Latin petrus – rock and oleum – oil), mineral oil, or crude oil, sometimes colloquially called black gold, is a thick, dark brown or greenish flammable liquid, which exists in the upper strata of some areas of the Earths... ... View of the Tosco (ex Valero, originally Shell) Martinez oil refinery An oil refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into useful petroleum products. ...

Tankers offload at LOOP by pumping crude oil through hoses connected to a Single Point Mooring (SPM) base. Three SPMs are located 8,000 feet (2.44 km) from the Marine Terminal. The SPMs are designed to handle ships up to 700,000 deadweight tons (635,000 metric tonnes). The crude oil then moves to the Marine Terminal via a 56-inch (1.4224 meter) diameter submarine pipeline. The Marine Terminal consists of a control platform and a pumping platform. The word ton or tonne is derived from the Old English tunne, and ultimately from the Old French tonne, and referred originally to a large cask with a capacity of 252 wine gallons, which holds approximately 2100 pounds of water. ... A tonne (also called metric ton) is a non-SI unit of mass, accepted for use with SI, defined as: 1 tonne = 1000 kg (= 106 g). ... Mid-19th century tool for converting between different standards of the inch An inch is an Imperial and U.S. customary unit of length. ... metre or meter, see meter (disambiguation) The metre is the basic unit of length in the International System of Units. ...

The control platform is equipped with a helicopter pad, living quarters, control room, vessel traffic control station, offices and life support equipment. The pumping platform contains four 7,000-hp (5.22 MW) pumps, power generators, metering and laboratory facilities. Crude oil is only handled on the pumping platform where it is measured, sampled, and boosted to shore via a 48-inch (1.2192 meter) diameter pipeline. The worlds most popular helicopter, the Bell 206 of Canadian Helicopters Robinson Helicopter Company (USA) R44, a four seat development of the R22 A helicopter is an aircraft which is lifted and propelled by one or more large horizontal rotors (propellers). ... The horsepower (hp) is the name of several non-metric units of power. ... The megawatt (symbol: MW) is a unit for measuring power corresponding to one million (106) watts. ... Sheep drinking near a pump A pump is a mechanical device used to move liquids or gases. ... Electrical generator Generator (Mathematics) ... Biochemistry laboratory at the University of Cologne. ...

LOOP's onshore facilities, Fourchon Booster Station and Clovelly Dome Storage Terminal, are located just on-shore in Fourchon and 25 miles (40.2 km) inland near Galliano, Louisiana. The Fourchon Booster Station has four 6,000-hp (4.47 MW) pumps which increases the pressure and crude oil flow en route to the Clovelly Dome Storage Terminal. Galliano is a census-designated place and town located on the Bayou Lafourche in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana. ...

The Clovelly Dome Storage Terminal is used to store crude oil in underground salt domes before it is shipped to the various refineries. The terminal consists of eight caverns with a total capacity of 40 million barrels, a pump station with four 6,000-hp pumps, meters to measure the crude oil receipts and deliveries, and a 25 million barrel Brine Storage Reservoir. A salt dome is formed when a thick bed of evaporite minerals (mainly salt, or halite) found at depth intrudes vertically into surrounding rock strata, forming a diapir. ... The barrel is the name of several units of measurement. ...

References

• "All About LOOP". Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. Retrieved June 5, 2005. (Mostly copied verbatim as the State of Louisiana allows free use for informational purposes)

External links

• LOOP LLC. - Home Page