Stepping into the ring: District 4 Metro Councilman Scott Wilson, a Republican, announced today his candidacy for Louisiana State Representative, District 65. A special election is being held March 2 to fill the unexpired term of Rep. Clif Richardson, R-Central, who recently announced he will resign in January because of health issues. Wilson, 44, is president of Conker Drayage and vice president of Derashnie Enterprises, both of which are intermodal transport companies. Wilson was unopposed on the Nov. 6 ballot for his seat on the Metro Council, which he initially won in 2008.
Sold! Deepwater tracts got nearly all the bids in the third federal oil and gas lease sale of the year for the Gulf of Mexico. Of $133.8 million in high bids taken today in an auction at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, only $4.6 million was for areas less than a half-mile underwater. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management offered about 20 million acres in the western Gulf, mostly off the Texas coast. It got 131 bids on 116 tracts, or about 652,500 acres. Seventy are at least 2,600 feet deep, and 35 others are much deeper. The area’s most recent sale before today, held in December 2011, brought in more than $324 million in leases.
Offshore tragedy: A body found Monday in the Gulf of Mexico near Grand Isle has been identified as the Filipino worker missing since a Nov. 16 oil platform fire. Lafourche Parish Coroner Dr. John King says the body is 28-year-old Jerome Malagapo, who had been working for Grand Isle Shipyard aboard a platform operated by Black Elk Energy about 20 miles south of Grand Isle. King says the identification was made from dental records but that more investigation is needed to determine cause of death. The fire killed two other workers. Ellroy Corporal’s body was found in the Gulf near the platform. Avelino Tajonera was critically burned and died at a hospital on Nov. 23. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. There is no ongoing oil spill at the site.
