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Louisiana OCS Rig Count - Highest Since May 2009

Most recent weekly rig count at 45

BATON ROUGE – Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Secretary Scott Angelle said today that drilling activity in the federal waters of the Louisiana Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), as measured by weekly rig counts, reached a three-year high of 45 rigs this week, part of a sustained increase of nearly 90 percent in the past nine months from 24 rigs actively drilling in September 2011.

Angelle said that the state’s partners in the Gulf Economic Survival Team and Back-to-Work Coalition have been a critical part of the ongoing high-level effort to help recovery in drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico, and the ongoing return of the jobs and economic growth that it supports.

"Things are getting more predictable as we continue our two-year effort in working towards a system that yields permits in a timely fashion without sacrificing safety," Angelle said. "We do not believe these goals are mutually exclusive."