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New technology is a game changer for Louisiana’s energy future, but foreign rivalries and domestic legal issues are still stacking against the energy industry, according to Louisiana Oil and Gas Association President Don Briggs.

Addressing the association’s local members Tuesday, Briggs spoke of the challenges facing the industry.

“We are today truly in a new era for our industry,” Briggs said. “Technology is changing everything, and we’re going to be part of it in a big way, especially in northwest Louisiana.”

Those technologies have allowed drilling firms to reach unprecedented levels of production, which has driven a boom in investments across Louisiana, Briggs said. The Louisiana chemical industry has been a major benefactor, he said.

But even with natural gas prices falling rapidly, Briggs said concerns about the future of drilling on the Haynesville Shale will eventually fade. Only 42 percent of rigs in the United States are drilling primarily for natural gas, Briggs said, down from 82 percent in 2008.

“Natural gas prices are going in the tank. We had a good run, but that’s the nature of the beast,” Briggs said. “Even though the rigs are moving out, and they need to be, eventually that glut will be swallowed.”

But the challenge of natural gas prices is based on successful production and partly a mild winter. Briggs said the largest problems facing the industry are both foreign and domestic.

Increasing tension between the United States, Israel and Iran have raised the specter of skyrocketing oil prices, already trading around $100 per barrel. Briggs said military or political action could limit oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz, through which 35 percent of the world’s sea-born oil flows and which Iran has threatened to shut down.

“If that happens, we’ll see the price of oil go absolutely through the roof,” Briggs said.

But U.S. Environmental Protection Agency push-back against hydraulic fracturing — the process of breaking apart shale sediment with water, sand and chemicals to release natural gas — was the area Briggs said concerned him most.

The EPA has raised concern that fracking could contaminate groundwater and harm people and the environment. Briggs said those concerns are “scare tactics,” that 85 percent of wells today are fracked and there has never been proof it is harmful.

“I’m not sure we’re winning that battle,” Briggs said. “This administration doesn’t like the domestic oil and gas industry.”

Briggs also raised concerns about the effects of “legacy lawsuits” — claims against firms for environmental damage caused in years past — on the oil and gas industry.

“It’s a huge problem, and our industry has been on the back side of it,” Briggs said.

Briggs said 56 percent of the top 50 oil and gas producers have legacy suits filed against them. Good companies, he said, are being sued for environmental damage as much as 70 years old caused sometimes by drilling techniques legal at the time.

A founder of LOGA, Briggs also serves on governor-appointed committees such as the Ground Water Management Advisory Task Force, Governor’s Environmental Task Force and the Oilfield Site Restoration Committee.

“Don is always the guy leading the charge against bad legislation and challenges to our industry,” LOGA’s Chairman of the Board Raymond Lasseigne said.

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