American Press

One of Louisiana’s most important industries — oil and gas — has been struggling with the low prices in the current glutted market for some time and is looking for help from the federal government.

Gifford Briggs, head of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, said recently that while the price of oil has rebounded to $40 a barrel, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and other major oil-producing nations may increase production soon and send prices on another downward spiral.

Briggs also noted there are only 29 active wells operating in the state, while normally there would be between 70 and 100.

To help the industry over this rough spot, LOGA is asking Congress to provide Louisiana with $128 million in stimulus money to plug “orphaned” wells. An orphaned well is one that has been abandoned and needs to be plugged, which is an expensive process.

Briggs said that more than 3,300 orphaned well have been plugged since 1993, but there is still an estimated 4,200 orphan wells remaining to be plugged. Under today’s circumstances, that number is likely to grow.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics July jobs report found that jobs fell to 569,100 from 576,100 in June in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sectors.

However, the actual unemployment rate in that sector fell to 15.6 percent from 17.8 percent because some unemployed people stopped looking for jobs in those industries.

One bit of good news for the industry is that the Environmental Protection Agency is bringing some regulatory relief to oil and gas producers by adopting a new rule that would no longer require producers to have systems in place to monitor methane leaks from networks linked to wells drilled since 2016.

Let us hope for the sake of Louisiana families that rely on the oil and gas industry for their livelihood, and for the good of the national economy, that Louisiana’s oil and gas industry can stabilize and hopefully bounce back to a much better situation.