Business briefs

Morgan City’s Moonlight Monday is Nov. 25
MORGAN CITY — Morgan City Main Street’s Moonlight Monday, a Christmas shopping season kickoff event, will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Nov. 25 in the 700 block of Front Street.
Participating merchants will offer discounts on purchases, and visitors can get a “punch card” for a chance to win one of five gift cards to be given away at the end of the night.
Shoppers who spend more than $150 at one of the stores will get a second punch card to put into the prize drawing. Morgan City Main Street will sell jambalaya tickets for $5 each. Tickets are pre-sale only, and are available at each participating store, from Main Street board members, and at City Hall.
Participating stores include The Bird’s Nest, The Frame Shop, Plantation Treasures, and Wildflower Boutique.

Cheniere updates progress
at LNG terminal
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Houston-based Cheniere Energy Inc. has reported that construction on the first two natural gas liquefaction units at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal in southwest Louisiana are 45 percent complete and ahead of schedule as of Sept. 30.
Cheniere Partners is developing up to six natural gas liquefaction units adjacent to existing regasification facilities at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal.
Construction began August 2012.
The first unit is expected to go online in late 2015.
Construction on the third and fourth units, which began in May, is 10 percent complete, with operations starting in late 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Salles to lead
La. Hospital Association
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Paul A. Salles will become the new president and chief executive officer of the Louisiana Hospital Association with the beginning of 2014.
The LHA announced the decision Monday.
Salles is currently executive vice president of the LHA and president and CEO of the Metropolitan Hospital Council of New Orleans.
LHA president and CEO John Matessino is retiring at the end of the year after 33 years with the association.
The LHA was established in 1926. The association is a nonprofit organization representing hospitals and healthcare provider groups across the state.

Donation benefits Nicholls’ petroleum program
THIBODAUX — Nicholls State University’s Department of Petroleum Engineering Technology and Safety Management has received a $3,000 donation from the Evangeline Chapter of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.
The donation will benefit the department’s foundation fund for the enhancement of student activities, programs and faculty development.
Officials say the department works to meet workforce needs of the ultra deepwater oil and gas industry and offers the only known program designed to accommodate the unique schedule of its workers. Courses are offered around the typical seven days on, seven days off or 14 days on, 14 days off work schedule of an offshore employee.

Libbey announces Shreveport plans
SHREVEPORT (AP)— Glass manufacturer Libbey Inc. plans to spend $20 million on new technology, research and development at its factory in Shreveport.
The Louisiana Economic Development department announced Tuesday that Libbey expects to create 70 jobs, with salaries averaging more than $38,000 per year, plus benefits, while retaining 511 existing Shreveport jobs.
The state says Libbey, based in Toledo, Ohio, will install new equipment over the next two years.
In February, Libbey cut at least 200 jobs at the Shreveport plant. It moved some equipment to Toledo and Monterey, Mexico, as it cut capacity in Shreveport and stopped making some products.
Louisiana says it offered Libbey incentives including a $500,000 Modernization Tax Credit to be claimed over five years after the investment is made. The company is also expected to claim other incentives including the state’s Quality Jobs and Industrial Tax Exemption.

Port seeks $24K for wood pellet export plant
PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP) — The Port of Pascagoula is asking Jackson County to borrow up to $24 million for wood pellet exporting facility.
The Port of Pascagoula is preparing a Bayou Casotte berth for a specialized wood pellet exporting facility. The export facility will have silos, an unloading facility for trucks and rail cars and a conveyor delivery system to the wharf.
The board of supervisors may consider the request when it meets Nov. 18.
Port director Mark McAndrews said Tuesday’s action by the port is just the first step in the process to issue the bonds.
Florida-based Green Circle Bio Energy Inc., which plans to build a $115 million wood pellet plant in George County, will use the site to export up to 500,000 tons of pellets per year to European utility companies.
McAndrews said the exporting facility is expected to cost about $30 million, with $15 million of that coming from port bonds. The state has put up $10 million for the project and the terminal operator will invest $5 million.
Another $14 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation will be used for intermodal improvements.
McAndrews said the port is asking for $24 million to give the project a cushion in case additional modifications to the wharf are needed.
The facility would be operational by early 2016.

La. seeking
to lease site of failed syrup mill
BATON ROUGE(AP) — The state Department of Agriculture and Forestry is seeking to lease the site of a sugar cane syrup mill near Lacassine that operated for only about three months before the $72 million, state-backed project foundered.
The syrup mill in Jefferson Davis Parish was touted by former state Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Bob Odom as a boon for southwest Louisiana cane farmers.
Department of Agriculture and Forestry spokeswoman Veronica Mosgrove said a Peruvian company has since agreed to buy the mill for $7 million and will dismantle the facility and ship it to Peru.
The state now hopes to squeeze some revenue out of the 22-acre site where the mill sits.

Microsoft enters 20-year deal for Texas wind power
HOUSTON (AP) — It takes a lot of energy to store all the data 1 billion people and 20 million businesses plug into their computers, phones, tablets and gadgets. So as part of an effort to become carbon neutral, Microsoft Corp. has entered a 20-year deal to buy power from a new wind farm in Texas, the first time the tech giant is directly purchasing electricity from a specific source.
The deal announced between Microsoft and RES Americas is being funded in part by money collected from a “carbon fee,” an internal tax of sorts that the company has been charging its departments for every ton of carbon produced.