Sasol buys church property
Published 11:01 am Tuesday, December 9, 2014
First Baptist Church of Westlake leaders recently accepted an offer from Sasol to purchase their church and its surrounding lot to make room for a transit route the company will construct as part of its multibillion-dollar ethane cracker project.
Mike Hayes, Sasol’s public affairs manager for U.S. megaprojects, said the church property, located at 501 Sulphur Ave., will be used as part of the project’s heavy haul route the company will construct to transport modules from a dock on the Calcasieu Ship Channel to the job site.
“Our heavy haul route requires some of the (church) property,” Hayes added. “But rather than sell Sasol some of their property the church elected to sell all of it to us.”
Hayes said he did not know the details of Sasol’s offer to the church, adding that he was “reluctant” to divulge the transaction’s sale price.
Church leaders first approached Sasol about buying their property at the company’s July 2013 open house at the Rigmaiden Recreation Center, Hayes said. He added that negotiations on the property began shortly thereafter and continued throughout 2014.
The Rev. Wayne McEntire, pastor of First Baptist Church of Westlake, could not be reached for comment.
Currently under construction, the dock for the heavy haul route will be located just north of the I-10 bridge. Sasol will lease the facility from the Port of Lake Charles.
Sasol and the port received their permit to build the dock from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in September.
Once the modules are offloaded from the dock, they will be taken down Sulphur Ave. to Sampson Street and then to Old Spanish Trail. From there, they will be transported along Guillory Street to Houston River Road and then to the construction site.
The modules are prefabricated sections of the cracker’s processing equipment that will be assembled on site. They are expected to arrive at the dock by mid 2015, Hayes said.
Workers are currently putting up new power poles to lift the power lines to a level that will be above the modules, which on average will be 25 feet wide by 25 feet tall, Hayes said.
“If you look at those power poles, you’ll get a sense of the magnitude of the project,” he added.
Sasol executives will be sending out alerts to inform people when the modules will be in transit. Those who are interested in getting these alerts can sign up for them on the “Projects” page of Sasol’s website at www.sasolnorthamerica.com.
Sasol’s $8 billion ethane cracker will produce ethylene, which will be used to make products such as synthetic fibers, detergents, paints and fragrances. The facility is expected to produce about 1.5 million tons of ethylene a year.