Asia-Pacific

Louisiana leaders want Gulf drilling to resume

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-06-11 10:51

Clouds are reflected in water near a patch of oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill off Grand Terre Island, Louisiana June 8, 2010. [Agencies]

Trade groups estimate that the 33 deepwater rigs idled the moratorium employed 5,900 to 9,200 people. Rig workers earn up to $1,800 per week, so that amounts to a loss of tens of millions dollars in salaries. In addition, those jobs support an additional 26,000 to 46,000 industry workers.

"It's going to put us out of business," said Glenn LeCompte, owner of a Louisiana catering company that provides food to offshore rigs. "My payroll probably runs about $150,000 a week. That payroll is going to disappear."

Gulf communities already are seeing the livelihoods of thousands of fisherman, property owners and tourism workers jeopardized by the spill. Fishing and tourism contribute $10 billion to Louisiana's $210 billion economy, while energy contributes $65 billion.

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"Those two things, fishing and oil, coexist together and form a way of life down here," said Jefferson Parish Council Chairman John Young.

The Energy Department estimates that 25 million barrels of oil production will be lost in 2011 because of the six-month moratorium. That's less than what the country burns in two days, but production will drop even more if the ban is extended to a year or more, as a number of analysts expect.

Many of the drilling jobs could end up going to Brazil, which recently discovered numerous oil fields off its coast. Brazilian oil company Petrobras wants to tap those fields but lacks the rigs.

"They're licking their chops saying, 'We'll take them"' from the US, said industry analyst Collin Gerry.

Barry Graham, general manager of Barry Graham Oil Service LCC, which operates 21 petroleum support vessels from Alabama and Louisiana, said he is hoping to avoid layoffs among his 150 employees.

"It's like sitting here waiting for the storm to approach," he said. "You sit and wait for a hurricane when you get the news it's coming. That's what this feels like, just waiting to get hit."