Acadiana’s oil and gas leaders gathered at the Petroleum Club for a run-up event to October’s Louisiana Oil & Gas Oil Exhibition show to lament the state of the industry and factors they say undermine it.
Oil and gas leaders at Wednesday’s luncheon said lingering low commodity prices, layoffs and a tough litigation environment have taken a toll on the industry, according to a report in The Advertiser.
Kenny Crouch, this year’s volunteer LAGCOE chairman, noted how times had changed.
“We have a lot of different faces; a lot of the faces from the past don’t have jobs or have moved on from the industry,” said Crouch, who moved his company, Pressure Control Specialities, from Lafayette to Texas, a friendlier energy environment.
LAGCOE expects to lose money in this year’s show, with expected lighter participation and sponsorship, he adds.
Ray Lasseigne offered a prayer. “Father, it seems like we have a target on our back,” he said, adding that unemployment, regulatory and legal issues have undercut the industry in Louisiana.
“We need to feel some sense of optimism,” former Gov. Kathleen Blanco said after the luncheon. A state lawmaker from Lafayette when oil and gas bottomed out in the early ’80s, Blanco said it took at least five years before the industry regained its footing back then. She said she senses some “small signs” of recovery now.
