City native is chairman of Louisiana Gulf Coast Oil Exposition

 

By ZACHARY FITZGERALD

The Louisiana Gulf Coast Oil Exposition will be held Oct. 22 to 24 in Lafayette at the Cajundome & Convention Center with more than 400 exhibitors from the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, according to a news release.

The exposition chairman is Morgan City native Kirby Arceneaux. 

Arceneaux, 56, is a graduate of Morgan City High School. His role as chairman of LAGCOE, which is a volunteer position, is to attend functions and support the officers and volunteers, he said.

“We opened up a little more space in the Cajundome to bring in some more exhibitors. So it’s definitely growing,” Arceneaux said.

The Morgan City area gives people the opportunity to experience the “total service spectrum” of drilling rigs, supply boats, trucking and the many other support services that employ thousands of workers in the surrounding areas, he said.

 “Being from Morgan City certainly gives you a firsthand perspective on the industry since it is a major hub for goods and services supplying the offshore industry,” Arceneaux said. 

Arceneaux has been a volunteer with LAGCOE for several years and was asked to join the officer group for a six-year term that progresses to the chairman role, he said.

Arceneaux is a 1978 graduate of the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

“I’ve been on the services side of the business ever since I rolled pipe for Oil & Gas Rental Services in Amelia,” Arceneaux said. 

He stayed in the Morgan City area for about five years and then moved to Victoria, Texas, with the same company. 

Arceneaux moved back to the Morgan City area in 1990 and stayed for about seven years. 

He is a shareholder and director for Environmental Drilling Solutions based in Lafayette, which is a solids control and waste management company servicing the Gulf of Mexico and shale plays across the country. The company processes “drill cuttings” and fluids. 

Overall, the oil and gas industry is “very vibrant” due to oil and gas operators’ “major investments” in deepwater and shelf fields in the Gulf of Mexico, coastal Louisiana and all of the shale plays across the country, he said.

“It is a great time to be in the industry, and our country is blessed to have the abundant supplies of natural resources,” Arceneaux said.

The factor that is driving the boom in oil and gas production is the “fracture technology,” Arceneaux said. “When you fracture these wells, they produce a lot faster. Since they’re being drilled horizontally, there’s more wellbore exposure,” he said. 

“Instead of a 30-foot section that you’re fracking, it could be about 1,500 to 2,000 feet of wellbore that’s being fracked.” A wellbore is a hole drilled to extract natural resources.

The commodity prices have dropped as a result, which is good for the manufacturing of the natural resources, he said. 

LAGCOE is trying to change its focus of the organization to be more of an educational organization not just a promotional one, Arceneaux said. 

The exposition is a “big networking opportunity” to meet customers and suppliers, he said. 

The event will host its inaugural career fair from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 24.

“Another thing that draws folks is you have a pretty good speaker agenda,” Arceneaux said. Visitors can see different companies’ display, and “check out your competition,” he said.

According to a LAGCOE news release, attendees will view the newest industry advances, engage in business with both domestic and international companies and gain productive information for company growth at technical and international sessions.

Technical presentations will cover both onshore and offshore topics pertinent to industry today, the release stated. Speakers will discuss shale gas risk management, decommissioning process optimization, the Gulf of Mexico deepwater outlook, liquid natural gas import/export, opportunities in Mexico and India and more, the release stated.

For more information about LAGCOE, visit www.lagcoe.com/Default.asp.