Louisiana Oil and Gas Association

Louisiana Oil and Gas Association

The Louisiana Oil and Gas Association reports on its website at www.lioga.com that the 2007 Louisiana Legislative Session Recap for Thursday, June 28, 2007, included in its June 28, 2007 session that every legislative session takes on its own personality and this session was no exception. If Louisiana Oil and Gas Association

could give the session a theme it would be “getting a piece of the billion dollar budget”.

Senate Bill 23 (Act No. 8)

Louisiana Oil and Gas Association reports that the last two years have been a fight to correct an amendment tacked on to Act 169 passed in 2005. Senator Robert Kostelka(R-Monroe) authored 2007’s Senate Bill 23 (SB 23); which returned third party protection in recording a memorandum of oil and gas lease. Louisiana Oil and Gas Association

was able to pass SB 23 with overwhelming support through the House with a 102-0 vote and through the Senate with 28-10 vote and was signed by the governor into law on June, 18, 2007. This is another true win for our industry and the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association.

HB Bill 187

Louisiana Oil and Gas Association reports that HB 187 by Representative Wilfred Pierre(D-Lafayette) Gives the Commissioner of Conservation authority to regulate CO2 pipelines into adjoining states. Louisiana Oil and Gas Association helped get it

passed HB 187 off the House floor this past Tuesday and is headed for the Governors desk.

House Bill 617

HB 617 would prohibit drilling on Lake Peigneur - Louisiana Oil and Gas Association

not wanting any ban on drilling defeated the bill in committee; hence, not allowing it to reach the House floor. Louisiana Oil and Gas Association reports that residents near Lake Peigneur in South Louisiana had reported sporadic bubbling on the surface of the lake and feared larger mishaps would repeat themselves as in the 1980 breach of the salt dome. Worrying that there was an undetected leak in the now present natural gas storage caverns, Representative Sydnie Mae Durand (D-Parks) introduced House Bill 617 which included the banning of drilling into the 1,300 foot-deep lake.

The state has monitored Lake Peigneur and tested it. They have sent divers and done everything that they could to figure out the bubbling. Conclusions found the bubbles are not gaseous or chemical. A geologist who has worked there for some time thinks it is a common geological fault. Durand and residents did not want to compromise.

Louisiana Oil and Gas Association Senate Bill 173 by Senator Joel Chaisson(D-Destrehan) would have prohibited injecting certain waste into salt domes. Louisiana Oil and Gas Association negotiated that out and convinced Senator Chaisson to drop the bill. There are few destinations to dispose of produced water that are better than salt domes.