A Mississippi Gulf Coast shipyard is adding 200 jobs. Here’s how to apply
Gulf Ship is adding more than 200 jobs under a new contract to build tugboats, the Mississippi Development Authority said Thursday in a news release.
The tugboats will service offshore oil operations, the news release said. Gulf Ship is owned by Edison Chouest Offshore, based in Louisiana. The 38-acre shipyard opened in Gulfport in 2006 under a lease with the Harrison County Development Commission.
In exchange for the jobs, MDA is providing grant funding of up to $900,000 for improvements to the launching system and waterfront area needed to fulfill the contract. Past economic-development deals with Edison Chouest affiliates have a spotty record in Gulfport.
The Sun Herald has filed a public-records requests with MDA for any details on the jobs Gulf Ship expects to create in exchange for grant funding and will update this story when a response is received.
Gulf Ship will be hiring employees experienced in shipyard crafts, MDA told the Sun Herald. For anyone interested in applying, the jobs will be posted on Edison Chouest’s website as they become available.
MS welcomes skilled shipbuilding jobs
Since it opened, Gulf Ship has primarily built and maintained tractor tugboats and platform-supply vessels.
“Gulf Ship’s new contract to build some of the best tugboats in the world from the Mississippi Gulf Coast once again shines a spotlight on the many advantages of doing business in our state, as well as the skilled shipbuilders that keep companies like Gulf Ship competitive in this fierce industry,” MDA Interim Director John Rounsaville said in the news release.
“We appreciate the hard work and collaboration of the Harrison County Development Commission and Harrison County, which, together with the MDA team, is bringing exciting job opportunities to the Gulf Coast region.”
A media representative from Edison Chouest has not returned a telephone call from the Sun Herald with details about the jobs.
Past Edison Chouest deals failed to pan out
MDA media representative Tammy Craft contacted the company at the Sun Herald’s request to find out a salary range for the jobs. The company would say only that salaries will be “competitive.”
The company would not disclose the number of people currently employed at Gulf Ship, Craft said. Harrison County provided Gulf Ship with $12 million in recovery funds after Hurricane Katrina with a promise that the company would create 800 jobs.
The company employed up to 650 when the oil industry was booming, the Harrison County Development Commission has said in the past, but underwent layoffs and was down to 110 employees in early 2016.
A week after layoffs at Gulf Ship, then-Gov. Phil Bryant announced with much fanfare an economic-development deal with a new Edison Chouest company, TopShip. TopShip was supposed to build a shipyard on land the Mississippi State Port Authority in Gulfport bought on the industrial seaway.
Topship at that time agreed to create 1,000 jobs in exchange $36 million in grants the state pledged, plus a host of tax incentives. That deal died before the state paid out any of the incentives but Edison Chouest continued to lease the property.
This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 11:29 AM.
