Business briefs

Nominate an Outstanding Small Business in La.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – The U.S. Small Business Administration’ s Louisiana District Office is seeking amazing entrepreneurs and champions of small business to honor during the 2015 National Small Business Week Awards event in May. Nominations are being accepted through 2 p.m. Jan. 5, 2015.
“More than half of Americans either own or work for a small business and many of them have amazing stories to tell. They help fuel our economy, drive innovation and increase America’s footprint in the global arena,” said Yolanda Garcia Olivarez, SBA South Central Region Administrator. The region covers Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas and more than 3.3 million small businesses. “Now is the time to help us single out the top entrepreneurs in your area. These are the ones who think big, take risks and work hard to achieve the American dream, strengthen the middle class and create good paying jobs. We want to spotlight their successes.”
The Louisiana Small Business Person of the Year will be selected based on number of years in business, growth in employees, increase in sales, innovativeness of product or service, response to adversity and contributions to the community. The Louisiana award winner will go on to compete for 2015 National Small Business Person of the Year award.
Nominations and more information can be found at http//awards.sba.gov , mailed directly to Melissa Daigrepont, U.S. Small Business Administration, Louisiana District Office, 365 Canal Street, Suite 2820, New Orleans, Louisiana 70114, or emailed to Melissa.daigrepont@sba.gov.

IberiaBank Corp. acquires Ga. bank
LAFAYETTE (AP) — Louisiana-based IberiaBank Corp. says it will acquire Georgia Commerce Bancshares Inc. in a stock deal valued at $195 million.
President and Chief Executive Officer Daryl G. Byrd tells said the deal will give IberiaBank $18.4 billion in total assets in five of the largest metro areas in the Southeast and a “meaningful presence” in 19 or the 20 largest metro areas in the region.
Georgia Commerce has nine offices in the Atlanta-Sandy-Roswell, Georgia metro area.
As of Sept. 30, Georgia Commerce had total assets of $1 billion, total loans of $731 million, and total deposits of $826 million.
The acquisition is similar to deals IberiaBank struck in Dallas, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville, Florida.
IberiaBank expects to close the Georgia Commerce acquisition in the first half of 2015.

BP still shedding jobs, could say more this week
DALLAS (AP) — BP PLC is still reducing jobs as is shrinks in the aftermath of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and the company might provide more details when it meets with investors this week.
Published reports over the weekend in the UK tied ongoing cuts to the decline of nearly 40 percent in the price of Brent crude oil since summer.
Brett Clanton, a BP spokesman in Houston, declined to say whether oil prices were causing the company to speed up layoffs, and he declined to put a number on the job cuts. An executive tied the cuts to a “simplification” plan that started after the company began to sell off assets following the 2010 well blowout and oil spill.
Brian Gilvary, BP’s finance director, told The Sunday Times newspaper that with the simplification plan, “headcounts are starting to come down across all of our activities.” He said that the cuts covered “essentially the layers above operations.”
London-based BP has about 84,000 employees including nearly 20,000 in the U.S.
The company said in March that spill-related compensation and other costs were nearing $43 billion. BP said it had sold $38 billion worth of assets over three years and planned to sell off another $10 billion by the end of 2015. As it shrinks, the company has been simplifying its structure, including combining back-office operations such as auditing and communications.
Company executives are scheduled to discuss their plans and forecasts with investors today in London.

Entergy Gulf States La. to buy power stations
BATON ROUGE — Entergy companies have agreed to buy Union Power Station for about $948 million. Union is located near El Dorado, Arkansas, near the Louisiana border.
Entergy Gulf States Louisiana LLC says in a news release Tuesday that the move will help meet the energy needs of Louisiana residents while keeping down costs.
Union’s natural gas generators can put out up to 1,980 megawatts. It entered commercial service in 2003.
Entergy Texas Inc. and Entergy Arkansas Inc. have each agreed to buy one unit and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana is buying the other two.
Entergy says the purchase price is about half the cost of building a comparable new plant.

U.S. rig count
up 3 to 1,920
HOUSTON (AP) — Oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. says the number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. rose by three this week to 1,920.
The Houston firm said Friday in its weekly report 1,575 rigs were exploring for oil and 344 for gas. One was listed as miscellaneous. A year ago there were 1,775 active rigs.
Of the major oil- and gas-producing states, Kansas gained five rigs, Louisiana increased by four, Alaska and Arkansas each gained two and California, New Mexico and Ohio each gained one.
Texas lost five rigs, Oklahoma lost three, Colorado lost two and Pennsylvania and Wyoming each lost one.
North Dakota, Utah and West Virginia were unchanged.
The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999.
From The Associated Press.

Another LNG plant planned for SW Louisiana
LAKE CHARLES (AP) — A Washington company says it has asked for federal permits for a $4.5 billion liquefied natural gas export plant in southwest Louisiana. VG Calcasieu Pass would be the third plant planned along the Calcasieu Ship Channel.
Executives of Venture Global LNG will describe and answer questions about their plans at noon Wednesday in the Cameron Parish Police Jury meeting room, spokeswoman Jessica Blake said.
The company says it has authority to export up to 10 million metric tons of LNG annually to Free Trade Agreement countries over a 25-year period. It has asked the U.S. Department of Energy for permission to export to countries outside the agreement, such as Japan, India, Taiwan and the European nations.
Other LNG plants planned for the ship channel region are Magnolia LNG and Southern California Telephone & Energy’s Monkey Island LNG project.
The region’s first LNG plant, Trunkline LNG, first opened in July, 1981.
According to Venture Global’s website, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has accepted its pre-filing request for the VG Calcasieu Pass project, starting the commission’s review of whether the project meets standards of the National Environmental Policy Act.