Don Briggs – Louisiana Oil & Gas Association

By Vickie Welborn

MANSFIELD ˜ Louisiana Oil & Gas Association President Don Briggs got a personal tour Monday of DeSoto Parish’s roadways that are disintegrating under the weight and volume of truck traffic generated by the Haynesville Shale play.

And he saw the complaints from parish officials are justified and magnified beyond what he expected based on what he’s been hearing at his Baton Rouge office.

“There’s no question that this is a major issue,” Briggs told DeSoto police jurors following his afternoon road trip with Superintendent Clinton Sharpley. “It’s much more so than I realized.”

He agreed the issue needs to be addressed by the industry and pledged to work with the parish toward a solution. No one ever imagined, he said, the shale activity would have such an impact in north Louisiana, especially DeSoto Parish.

Briggs’ visit was in response to ongoing discussions by police jurors about deteriorating roads and ways to speed up repair work caused by natural gas drilling rig movements and the almost endless convoy of service vehicles. Last week, they asked Jodee Bruyninckx, the association’s North Louisiana director, to encourage oil and gas operators to take a ride on the roads so they would have a better understanding of the parish’s position.

“It’s nothing like seeing it to understand it,” Briggs said.

Police jurors were prepared Monday to tighten existing road use laws and place monetary value on road surfaces that would be used to assess repair costs. They held off, though, after Briggs’ talk, and instead agreed to call a Road Committee meeting for 5 p.m. Nov. 17 to bring all parties together for more discussion.

Kevin McCotter, Chesapeake Energy’s Louisiana corporate development director, and Shawn Helon, of EnCana Oil & Gas community relations department, asked the Police Jury, prior to its vote, to postpone action to allow for further discussion. McCotter pointed out that Chesapeake has a field representative who spends a majority of his time in DeSoto Parish trying to stay abreast of road repairs.

“We know our operators have an impact,” Helon said, adding the company has spent approximately $180,000 on road repairs and paid more than $418,500 in severance taxes this year.

Briggs hopes before next week to have solicited input from state officials on the DeSoto road dilemma. He pledged to set up an immediate meeting with the governor’s chief of staff.

The state, Briggs said, should be part of the discussion because of the estimated $4 billion to $5 billion impact it’s receiving from the Haynesville Shale. It’s “absolutely absurd,” he added, that DeSoto was receiving such a small return from the state on severance taxes collected in the parish given the amount of money going into state’s coffers via DeSoto Parish.

“The development here is too big, too important to the state,” Briggs said.

The comment got an almost unanimous nod from the 11 police jurors who reminded Briggs they have to answer to constituents whose road complaints are mounting. Safety is at the top of their worries.

Police Juror Richard Fuller said he wished Briggs, or the industry, would have responded to DeSoto sooner, but added, “We just want the roads passable.”

“I’m confident we can do this “» but we’ve got to work together,” Police Juror Ernel Jones said.

vwelborn@gannett.com

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20091110/NEWS01/911100312/1060