AERN home > Success stories > Greene County, Summer 2008
AERN Helps Attract TEPPCO Facility to Boligee
Greene County took a giant economic step forward this summer with the announcement that TEPPCO, a multi-billion-dollar petroleum pipeline company, is locating a facility in Boligee.
Phillis Belcher, executive director of the Greene County Industrial Development Board, gave much of the credit for getting TEPPCO to locate in Greene County to the resources AERN provides her office. "Having an Internet connection with which we could present information to TEPPCO officials about our workforce, county population statistics, land use, and retail activity was invaluable in selling them on the Boligee location," Belcher said. "This information enabled us to present a detailed, accurate picture of the potential not only for the present but also for future growth in Greene County."
"When the installation is complete, up to 10 direct jobs and as many as 60 indirect jobs will be added to the Greene County workforce," Belcher said. She said TEPPCO signed a 60-year agreement to stay in Boligee and will operate on 80 acres of land being leased by the Greene County Industrial Development Board. "We could not have achieved this kind of long-term agreement without the resources provided by AERN," Belcher said.
In addition to the local jobs, Greene County will receive funds from a tax abatement that has been granted to generate tax revenue for the county. TEPPCO decided to come to Greene County not only because of the ideal location of the two pipelines, but because they wanted to take on a project that involved a different type of market from their normal investments.
TEPPCO is one of the largest common carrier pipelines of refined petroleum products and liquefied petroleum gases in the United States, according to its website. The Boligee project will furnish barge transportation services to several TEPPCO customers connecting to Tennessee waterways. In addition to two tank barges and one tow boat TEPPCO Marine currently uses to supply these markets, four additional tank barges and two new tow boats are slated to serve new terminals when complete.
Additional growth opportunities for TEPPCO in the Boligee area will depend on increase in demand through the Tennessee terminals. The Boligee terminal will feature an interconnect with the Colonial Pipeline system and will be the primary origination point for products that will be delivered to the new Tennessee terminals in western Tennessee.
Not only is TEPPCO an oil carrier, it is also involved in almost all phases of crude oil gathering, transportation, and distribution.
TEPPCO will use the two different pipelines in the area, Colonial Pipeline and Plantation Pipeline. Both pipelines are located about two miles from TEPPCO'S work site. TEPPCO officials said their new business approach will not only increase their profits, but make their company much stronger and more competitive in the future as the company expands operations in its Southeast network.
- Contributed by Kara Smith, CCBP Intern
From AERNews, Vol. 8, No. 2, Summer 2008