Louisiana oil industry must get greener to remain vital, leader says

Colin Campo Houma Courier-Thibodaux Daily Comet USA TODAY NETWORK 10/25/2022

Global demand is pushing toward cleaner energy, and Louisiana must follow, an oil industry leader said Tuesday in Houma.

'If we are serious about energy production in Louisiana, and future energy production in Louisiana, we have to be serious about reducing carbon in the atmosphere,' said Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association President Tommy Faucheux. 'It does have an impact.'

Faucheux spoke to members of the South Central Industrial Association during a luncheon at the Cypress Columns meeting hall in Gray.

Political and market trends are pushing the oil and gas industry toward cleaner output, and government regulations are making it harder to operate, he said.

'If you look from a market standpoint, the market wants companies to be lower carbon,' he said. 'I know it is hard for some people to embrace a lower carbon energy future for any number of reasons. Be open to it because it is a new wave of industrial investment in Louisiana that I believe in. It will definitely bring increased revenues and jobs while at the same time allowing us to expand oil and gas production.'

Oil companies are cutting carbon emissions wherever they can because consumers are demanding it, Faucheux said. Much of this is done through carbon capture, where companies collect carbon byproducts and waste during the production process and store them underground.

The Gulf of Mexico produces the world's lowest-carbon oil, something that could position the area to produce more crude as other places cut, he said.

Carbon capture has its limitations, so it's important that Louisiana schools, including Fletcher Technical Community College in Schriever and Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, stay on the forefront of wind, solar, natural gas and other energy options, Faucheux said.

'When it comes to carbon reduction, you only get so far. We'll never get where we want to be with carbon emissions without investing in innovation and new technologies as well,' he said. 'We want those members of our workforce to be able to find employment opportunities as the industry ebbs and flows.'

Local businesses are exploring solar and wind energy in the Gulf, he said. Hydrogen energy and carbon capture technologies are also receiving attention.

President Joe Biden's administration has taken policy actions that have hampered oil companies' ability to drill in the Gulf, Faucheux said.

'You can't separate this lack of an energy policy from the anti-domestic energy sector that we see from a lot of people in Washington,' Faucheux said. 'Many of them on the other side want you to believe as they do at their core, that the time for fossil fuels has passed and that the need for expanded domestic production should be over.'

This political opinion will have a significant impact in Louisiana, he said, because between 20% and 26% of Louisiana's economic output is wrapped up in the oil sector and its service industries.

The Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association has lobbied the Biden Administration to ease restrictions in Gulf oil activity.

'We have tried our best, quite frankly, to get the Biden administration to reverse course on this path of stopping Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production,' he said. 'The blocking of the previously approved lease sales by federal courts, at the end of last year going into this year, was unneeded.'

Lease sales in the Gulf are of great importance because they create future predictability for profits. People's jobs are tied up in where and when the next drilling begins, Faucheux said.

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, was pivotal in getting lease sales moving again. Now that two lease sales have been given the green light, a five-year draft plan has been created by the Biden administration. The five-year plan for oil leasing should have been in place July 1, when the previous plan expired, Faucheux said.

The lack of a plan was creating anxiety among oil companies. Now there is some optimism, but this draft is less than clear and even leaves an option for zero drilling in the Gulf, something Faucheux labelled 'unacceptable.'