History of Offshore Oil and Gas Development in the Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico offshore oil and gas industry was born off the coast of Louisiana in the 1940's, and from there the people, companies, and technologies spread across the globe.  From negligible production in 1947, the total worldwide production of offshore oil grew steadily to account for about 14 percent of world oil supply in 1974 and about one-third today.  By the mid-1990's, worldwide natural gas production had risen to around 228 billion cubic feet per day, 20-25 percent of this total accounted for by offshore gas. Indeed, offshore is the big story in the history of the oil and gas industry in the late twentieth century.

The development of the offshore petroleum industry is a remarkable story of inventiveness, entrepreneurship, hard work, and risk-taking that turned Louisiana’s relatively isolated coastal communities into significant contributors to the U.S. and world economies.  Offshore workers initially came from Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, but soon people from throughout the United States were attracted to the Gulf Coast.  While this industry, born in the Louisiana marshes, has grown to have a key place in the modern world, it is little known, understood, or documented and its dynamic economic role is virtually invisible.  This industry emerged as returning World War II veterans applied skills, technologies, and can-do attitudes to overcome the many challenges of producing oil from below the ocean floor.
To explore the history and evolution of this industry and the people and communities where it was born, in 2001 the U.S. Minerals Management Service Environmental Studies Program funded the study “History of Offshore Oil Development in the Gulf of Mexico.”  Research of the MMS Environmental Studies Program (ESP) provides information and analysis in support of MMS decision-making and assessment.

The four-year history study involves many institutions, including the Louisiana State University’s Center for Energy Studies, the University of Arizona’s Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, the University of Houston’s Department of History, and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Program in Public History Studies.  The study is methodologically innovative, joining standard history approaches to oral history and public history.  To date, study products include transcriptions of interviews and oral histories, collections of photographs with commentaries, academic papers, and reports.

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