Briggs: Energy sector to see growth if challenges overcome

The state is poised to be part of an American energy resurgence if the oil and gas industry can overcome challenges from regulations and lawsuits, Gifford Briggs, vice president of the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association, said Wednesday.
Briggs was the guest speaker at the St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce business luncheon. He works as a lobbyist for the association, which represents the oil and gas industry in Louisiana.
Briggs cited a report that came out Tuesday declaring the U.S. the biggest supplier of crude oil in the world. Fifty percent of crude oil produced in the country comes through Louisiana, Briggs said. “The role that our state and our communities are playing in our becoming the biggest producer of crude oil cannot be overlooked,” Briggs said.
The country is going through an “energy renaissance,” Briggs said. The industry is a thriving, but has challenges to address, he said.
The association will be working during the upcoming state legislative session to ensure a fair and predictable tax structure, he said.
Lawsuit abuse is forcing oil and gas companies to move out of the state, Briggs said. Major national organizations have filed a lawsuit to block a hydraulic fracturing well from being drilled in St. Tammany Parish, he said. “Generally, the opponents (of hydraulic fracturing) believe that if they can get the most conservative parish in Louisiana and largely one of the biggest oil and gas states to ban hydraulic fracturing, then they can be successful anywhere,” Briggs said.
More than $100 billion in oil and gas industry projects have been announced, which could create 200,000 construction jobs between now and 2019, Briggs said.
Still, the U.S. is seeing an extremely steep decline in drilling activity in Louisiana. “It’s not for a lack of an availability of resources. There’s tons of resources in south Louisiana,” Briggs said. The Gulf of Mexico is the most expensive place to drill for oil in the world due to the environmental regulations, he said.
In 2013, south Louisiana had 12 onshore rigs running at one point, which is the lowest recorded activity in south Louisiana history, Briggs said.
The nation’s energy growth began with growth in the natural gas industry, in which Louisiana played a major role, Briggs said. The Haynesville Shale discovery in north Louisiana transformed the state’s economy, he said. At one point, DeSoto Parish had 10 percent of the natural gas activity in the country, Briggs said.
“Slowly, the technology shifted from being applied to natural gas shale to moving over to being applied to liquid plays. And that is where we see this meteoric rise in our production of oil and natural gas or other liquids,” Briggs said.
The production and use of natural gas for fuel has decreased the U.S. consumption of oil, he said. Though Briggs does not believe the U.S. will ever be energy independent, the country can be energy secure, he said.
The U.S. can be comfortable where it is right now in regards to energy supply if the country stays on its current path, Briggs said.
The U.S. is seeing new and emerging markets due to an incredible demand for natural gas in other countries, Briggs said. The nation has up to an estimated 200-year supply of natural gas, he said. “We now as a country have an opportunity to be a net exporter of energy,” Briggs said.