Oil & gas downturn starting to hit home

The year closes out on what may be one of the worst downturns in the oil patch.
Employment and sales tax numbers for St. Landry Parish indicated the downturn in the oil and gas industry were hitting home.
Louisiana’s petroleum industry continued to slump as oil prices remained low, a news release this month from the Louisiana Workforce Commission stated. The mining and logging sector, which includes oil and gas businesses, lost 1,200 jobs in November. Over the year, the sector has lost 10,100 jobs – a drop of nearly 20 percent. Employment in oil and gas in Louisiana is at the lowest level since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began its current tracking series in 1990.
Sales tax revenue in Eunice rose only 1 percent through November from the same 11-month time period in 2014. Eunice sales tax revenues in November were down 4 percent from those in October. The November city sales tax revenues were down 2.7 percent from those in November 2014.
Eunice sales tax revenues also were down in September and August from a year ago.
In St. Landry Parish, the October jobless rate was 8.2 percent, up from 8.1 percent a year ago. Another job picture comes into focus with the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting 31,103 people working St. Landry Parish in October, down from 31,984 working in October 2014.
The slowdown was more apparent in Lafayette, which has lost 5,100 jobs over the year. Houma has lost 2,800 jobs this year.
There is a bright spot in the oil and gas industry job scene in St. Landry Parish. In September, the Hazelwood Energy Hub east of Port Barre, a $400 million crude oil storage and blending complex that will employ about 120 people at an average annual salary of $63,500, was announced. The facility, with a capacity of more than 13 million barrels of oil, will blend and ship crude oil to 17 refinery customers in the Gulf Region.
Louisiana Economic Development estimates the petroleum hub project will result in 145 new indirect jobs, for a total of more than 265 new jobs in Acadiana and surrounding regions. In addition, the project is expected to create 200 construction jobs.
The company expects to begin construction in 2016, and the facility is expected to begin operation in 2018, a Louisiana Economic Development stated.