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Louisiana Outer Continental Shelf Rig Count Reaches Another Post-Moratorium High

Count surpasses previous high for fifth time since early December

BATON ROUGE – Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Secretary Scott Angelle on Friday announced that the most recent weekly count of rigs actively drilling in the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) water off Louisiana’s coast continues a run of the highest level of drilling rig activity in the area in the nearly 20 months since federal regulators declared a months-long ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in late May 2010.

The current count of 39 rigs drilling in Louisiana OCS waters, up one from the previous week, is nearly double the 20 active rigs that were operating in the area to open the year 2011. That count of 39 is still lower than the average count of about 42 rigs running during the three months prior to the federal moratorium that was declared lifted in October 2010 – though federal regulators issued no new permits until February 2011. In the weeks that followed the declaration of the moratorium, that rig count fell as low as 11.

Louisiana OCS rig counts averaged in the mid-20s for most of 2011, touching a pre-December peak of 33 for one week in May. Since the first week of December, the Louisiana OCS rig counts have marked new post-moratorium highs in five different weeks – at 34 in the first week of December, 35 in a mid-month count, 36 in the last count of 2011, 38 last week and 39 this week. During that run, the average count has been 36 rigs running in the Louisiana OCS.

Gov. Bobby Jindal in 2010, designated Angelle to head the Back-To-Work Coalition, an association of Gulf exploration stakeholders that has worked, and continues to work, to help both federal regulators and the industry find a regulatory middle ground that ensures safe and responsible operations while allowing development of the resources that provide domestic energy and domestic jobs.

“We are seeing sustained progress in the effort to return to a normal pace of exploration activity and the jobs it supports throughout our state, and I appreciate all the work that our partners in the Back-to-Work Coalition and the Gulf Economic Survival Team (GEST) have done to help us get to this point,” Angelle said. “I believe we all recognize, however, that we still have work to do and goals to achieve to maximize the Gulf of Mexico’s role in providing jobs, energy and economic opportunities.”