Louisiana’s oil and gas industry: huge and risk-laden
Louisiana’s oil and gas industry: huge and risk-laden
Is Louisiana’s oil and gas industry important to the state?
Does a dog bark?
Candidly, it’s hard to even meaningfully address how vital that work sphere is to the state’s bottom line, as measured by virtually any yardstick. Following are some relevant numbers that readily confirm how hard it is to overstate the realm’s outsized impact on residents and the regional economy. A major industry trade association reports this:
Nearly a quarter-million sector-linked jobs
Contribution of $73 billion to Louisiana’s GDP during 2019
$4.5 billion in taxes collected by state authorities from the energy industry last year
Massive application of collected taxes and fees toward state infrastructural needs and other programs/initiatives
Such data underscore with force how absolutely key the oil and gas industry is in Louisiana.
Tandem reports on that topic often stress simultaneously this additionally fundamental point concerning the vast and complex realm: the oil and gas industry comprises a risk-laden and often dangerous work environment.
One prominent spotlighting of that subject matter comes via a regulatory compliance expert’s article penned for the federal Occupational Health & Safety Administration.
Karen D. Hamel stresses foremost in that piece that the sector “is very labor-intensive and presents multiple hazards.” Moreover, government data indicate that fatal work outcomes for industry employees occur at a rate seven times higher than is the case in other work realms.
The risks are clear, whether they are linked with moving vehicles, equipment malfunctioning, fires/explosions, toxic compounds, unstable platforms or other dangerous catalysts.
Louisiana depends heavily on a vibrant and ever-progressive oil and gas industry. It is imperative that the sector be fundamentally safe for those who sustain and propel it forward.
