[StBernard] What would Louisiana look like without oil? Ask Mississippi.

[Westley Annis]

What would Louisiana look like without oil? Ask Mississippi.

Posted: Tuesday, July 22, 2014 1:44 pm | Updated: 2:28 pm, Tue Jul 22, 2014.

By ERIC BESSON Staff Writer | 0 comments

Figures are his ink, and Loren Scott again illustrated to local business
leaders that the energy industry is Louisiana's bridge to economic
prosperity.

Without Fourchon and Haynesville, without three of the largest oil
refineries in the world and without enough embedded pipelines to wrap the
globe four and a half times, well, Louisiana would be on the same economic
tier as its oft-lampooned neighbor.

"If you want a good idea of what Louisiana would look like without this
industry, all you have to do is look one state east," said Scott, former
chair of economics at Louisiana State University and current professor
emeritus. "Mississippi is No. 50 in the United States in per capita income.
We are No. 31 in the United States in per capital income. One of the biggest
differences between us is the fact we have this oil and gas here, and it
creates an exploration industry, a pipeline industry, a refining industry .
We're really, really fortunate from that standpoint."

At the South Central Industrial Association's annual general membership
meeting last week, Scott presented findings of his study, "The Energy
Sector: Still a Giant Economic Engine for the Louisiana Economy," which was
co-sponsored by the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association and the
Grow Louisiana Coalition.

Scott's economic consulting firm boasts clients like BellSouth, Capital One
Financial, Entergy, ExxonMobil, J.P. Morgan Chase and others. He is a member
of the National Business Economic Issues Council and the Economic Advisory
Board of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness.

Included in his Louisiana energy production study were data detailing how
many direct jobs per parish are associated with oil and gas extraction,
support activities, petroleum refining and pipeline industries, and the
average annual wages those jobs command.

Statewide, these roughly 65,000 "energy" jobs command a median salary of
$89,504; 15 of the 55 parishes for which the figures are available are above
that level, according to data in Scott's report.

Terrebonne Parish, which with 6,070 ranks second in energy jobs behind only
Lafayette (16,179), is one of those 15 states with average annual wages of
$91,946. In total, energy-related wages there exceeded $558 million in 2013,
according to projections extrapolated from third-quarter data of last year.

Lafourche has 1,511 energy jobs with average salaries of $86,442.06, as
total wages approached $131 million last year.

Orleans Parish averages 2,583 energy jobs with average salaries totaling
$139,938, the highest wage-per-job total of the 55 parishes. Catahoula
Parish, with only 57 energy jobs, ranks last in average related salaries at
$37,249.26. In Lafayette, 16,179 workers collectively earned $1.4 billion.

These jobs and salaries, of course, stem from the enormity of the state's
mining operations, an industry so large that the facts surrounding it, all
according to Scott, seem outlandish at times.

When adding production from the federal deep-water Gulf to its tally,
Louisiana was responsible for roughly 20 percent of gross crude-oil
production and more than 12 percent of natural gas extracted from the United
States in 2013, Scott says, which ranks the state No. 2 in producing both
sources throughout the country.

"The reason I include the federal offshore is because virtually 90
percent-plus of the activity in the Gulf of Mexico is serviced out of this
particular area here," Scott said, referencing Port Fourchon in Lafourche
Parish.

Overall, direct energy employment is equivalent to the population of Acadia
Parish, the 18th most populated parish in the state, or the Alexandria
metropolitan statistical area.

The $22.8 billion in income created by the state's oil and gas extraction
and support activities sectors exceeds all other manufacturing sectors in
Louisiana except for chemicals. In 2011, Scott says, the "oil and gas
industry and the refining sectors combined created a remarkable $40.8
billion of income in Louisiana."

Economists love to talk about the "multiplier effect" and Scott is no
different. Directly and indirectly, the extraction industry was responsible
for 181,000 jobs in Louisiana in 2011, he said, at average wages of $78,865
per year. Refinery operations, alone, were credited for 101,000 jobs
directly and indirectly in 2011, and the pipeline industry was responsible
for 5,600.

That's about 287,000 jobs created by these three industries, either directly
or indirectly, according to Scott.

In 2012-13, Louisiana's treasury directly collected $1.5 billion in taxes,
fees and royalties from extraction, refining and pipeline industries. That
comprised 14.6 percent of all state taxes collected.

The industry has also contributed mightily to local governments, with
extraction, refining and pipeline industries combining to pay $409.7 million
in ad valorem taxes to local governments last year, a 37.5 percent increase
from 2009.

The industries paid more $16.1 million to Lafourche and $11.5 million to
Terrebonne in property taxes, allotments that accounted for 14.3 percent and
13.7 percent of ad valorem collected in the respective parishes.

To download the report, visit growlouisianacoalition.com.