Oil-related businesses keep eye on ban lift

Though the oil industry in the Tri-parishes would greet it enthusiastically, local oil producers said, the federal ban on drilling for oil in most waters off the U.S. coast is unlikely to be repealed despite high gasoline prices and President Bush’s executive order lifting the prohibition.

Congress would have to approve lifting the ban for more drilling to take place. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is firmly opposed to the expansion of oil drilling, asserting that opening up coastal waters would have little effect on oil prices. The speaker has refused to allow Congress to vote on expanded offshore drilling, exhorting Bush to “exhaust other remedies.”

Still, oil producers can dream.

Currently, offshore drilling is allowed only off the coasts of Alaska, Texas, Louisiana, the Mississippi and Alabama panhandles and a small section of southern California.

New production off the Florida coast would have the greatest impact on the Tri-parish oil industry.

“If they do open up more drilling in Florida, much of the fabrication would be done in Louisiana, Texas and Alabama with fabrication facilities already in place,” said Kerry Chauvin, CEO of Houma rig-builder Gulf Island Fabrication. “Not everyone wants a fabrication yard in their backyard. We would get a lot more work in this area.”

Oil drilling in Florida waters would be a “frontier” experience, said Phoenix Exploration spokesman Tim Duncan. The Houston-based company has offices in St. Mary Parish and Thibodaux.

“Florida would have to start from scratch,” Duncan said. “Seismic crews, drilling, boating services – all the stuff Houma uses every day.”

“It’s a new opportunity for services getting stale, a chance to do it all over again,” he said. “New structures will get built, new construction yards. … Whether this will come out of Houma, Morgan City, Thibodaux, I don’t know.”

Seismic imaging and clearing shallow hazards – monitoring the sea bottom to check for any obstacles to drilling – have yet to be performed in Florida waters.

“No one’s gone into Florida and measured this,” Duncan said. “Other places in the Gulf can do it off the shelf.”

Duncan said the nation would feel the effect of expanded oil production sooner than Congress believes.

Regardless, “there are certain benefits to high oil prices for Houma whether the ban is lifted or not,” he said.

A spokesman for Waguespack Oil in Thibodaux agreed.

“I think this area will be in good shape for a long time because we’re oil rich,” he said. “There are huge finds in the Gulf. In Louisiana, we have a great economy now because we’re the only ones going out to get oil. Oil companies are looking for the cheapest way to bring oil to the market.”

The U.S. has enough oil to last a couple of hundred years, the spokesman said, and demand will not decrease.

He also said oil can be produced cleanly and any proposal to drill more would cause a price decrease.

Both U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal are strong proponents of expanded offshore drilling. Vitter sponsored the ENOUGH (Energy Needed Offshore Under Gas Hikes) Act, encouraging individual states to petition Congress to drill for oil off their coasts.