Mid-Continent rep: U.S. needs more offshore oil access

The U.S. needs more access to oil and gas deposits located offshore, said Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association president Chris John at South Central Industrial Association’s March meeting in Larose.

Louisiana should take pride in being an oil and gas producer as well, John said. The state is the top producer of oil in the country, counting the crude extracted from the Gulf of Mexico, he said. Louisiana has 17 oil refineries, none in the Tri-parishes.

John is a former U.S. representative from Louisiana who lost his race against David Vitter to fill John Breaux’s U.S. Senate seat.

As one of the top lobbyists for Louisiana’s oil and gas industry, John rattled off the importance of the industry to the state, citing a report completed by Louisiana State University economist Loren Scott:

• The industry has a $70 billion economic impact on the state and supports 320,000 jobs.

• Fourteen percent of the state budget comes from taxes, royalties and fees paid by the industry.

• The industry generates $12.7 billion in household earnings in Louisiana.

John said his job is to make the rest of the country aware of Louisiana’s dominant role in oil and gas production.

“The future of our state is in the Gulf of Mexico,” he said.

“It’s not easy trying to convince someone from Indiana (of the need to) open up oil and gas exploration,” John said. “There are senators from the Northeast who are against oil and gas exploration. Why are we against restricting access?”

“We ought to be proud we’re an oil and gas producing state,” he said. “There are enough naysayers in the country.”

The oil and gas industry in the state is sophisticated, with the increasing ability to drill at great depths, John said.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused no significant spills and production in the Gulf is near pre-Katrina levels.

John asserted that Corpus Christi will be a major competitor with Port Fourchon as an oil port because of the Texas city’s nearness to the Gulf.

Tony Alford, chairman of the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District, asked John why oil companies in the state do not offer to help pay for the Morganza project’s hurricane protection levees because the companies would benefit from the improved infrastructure.

John agreed that oil companies need the Gulf’s estuaries and its coast.

South Central Industrial Association president Don Hingle said the meeting in Larose marked the organization’s first time gathering outside Terrebonne Parish.