Social and Economic Impacts of OCS Activity on Individuals and Families
Volume I: Final Report, Southern Louisiana
Volume II: Case Studies of Morgan City and New Iberia, Louisiana

OCS Study MMS 2002-022 and MMS 2002-023

The Minerals Management Service (MMS), Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, announces the availability of a new study report, Social and Economic Impacts of OCS Activity on Individuals and Families Volume I: Final Report, Southern Louisiana and Volume II: Case Studies of Morgan City and New Iberia, Louisiana.

This study was conducted within two communities of Acadiana in southern Louisiana: Morgan City and New Iberia. Both are involved in diverse activities associated with the exploration, development, and production of oil and gas from the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Petroleum workers and petroleum families populate them. New Iberia is a sugarcane town that acquired an oil sector. Morgan City is a shrimping and commercial port on the Atchafalaya River that was strategically poised to become a prominent fabricating, service, and supply center for the oil and gas industry. The communities, with populations of 30,000 and 12,000, respectively, are amenable in size for ethnographic study which, in its broadest sense, endeavors to understand the social, political, economic, and cultural dynamics of communities.

The results of this research are reported in two companion volumes. Volume I surveys the effect of OCS activities on workers in diverse sectors of the industry, on individuals and families, and on communities. Volume II, "Case Studies," looks at the communities of New Iberia and Morgan City, the multigenerational attitudes towards work in the oil and gas industry, and recent changes in two transportation sectors, trucking and offshore supply vessels.

Principal findings of the study are that OCS activity is the source of a wide array of workplaces and patterns. Further, such activity establishes the parameters within which many different lifestyles develop. Workers and their families have indicated that the nature and extent of OCS-related effects vary according to industry sector and position within the sector and the company. Factors that influence effects include (1) stability and vulnerability of employment in the sector, (2) wages and opportunities for advancement, (3) patterns of work scheduling, and (4) safety. Within and among sectors, company responses to industry fluctuations, restructuring, and other changes in the oil and gas industry differ considerably, and these responses contribute to the impacts felt by workers and families.

A team of researchers from the University of Arizona’s Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology conducted the study in partnership with 14 teacher-researchers from Morgan City and New Iberia. Consequently, this report represents the work of more than 20 researchers and hundreds of community members.

This report is available on compact disc for $15.00. A limited number of paper copies are available at a charge of $30.00 per set from the Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, by referencing OCS Study MMS 2002-022 and MMS 2002-023. These reports may be downloaded in the near future from the Regional website. You will also be able to obtain this report also from the National Technical Information Service in the near future. Here are the addresses. You may also inspect copies at selected Federal Depository Libraries.