An active oilfield drilling location in Scott, LA served as the backdrop today for a signing event between the state departments of Natural Resources and Wildlife and Fisheries to announce new procedures that streamline the coastal use permitting process.

A new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed while visiting a well site at Scott field in Lafayette Parish where drilling for natural gas was underway. The secretaries of the Louisiana Departments of Natural Resources (DNR) and Wildlife and Fisheries (DWF) invited members of the oil industry to also participate in the event. This agreement between agencies will significantly reduce processing delays for oil and gas companies seeking coastal use permits in areas within the coastal zone.

At this particular site, the oil and gas drilling operation was permitted under the rules and regulations of DNR’s Office of Conservation’s Order 29-B by Tri-C Resources, Inc. of Houston, Texas. Tri-C Resources has also worked within the state’s coastal zone, having been granted eight coastal use permits since 1998.

Over 60 percent of the coastal use permits issued by DNR’s Coastal Management Division are for oil and gas related activities.

DNR Secretary Scott Angelle said that with the MOU plus other efficiency measures undertaken by the division, there has been a reduction in oil and gas permit processing by about 30 days. “We are now more involved in the pre-application process which prepares applicants to have many details taken care of in advance,” said DWF Secretary Dwight Landreneau. “Applicants can take steps early on to make sure their permit requests are in compliance with existing regulations and eliminate time delays created when paperwork had to be resubmitted.”