The development of the Gulf of Mexico offshore petroleum industry is a remarkable story of inventiveness, entrepreneurism, hard work, and risk-taking that turned Louisiana’s relatively isolated and impoverished coastal communities into significant contributors to the U.S. and world economies. This industry, born in the Louisiana marshes, and moved offshore into Gulf waters after World War II, as veterans returning from the war applied skills, technologies, and can-do attitudes to the many difficulties of producing oil from the oceans.
From these pioneering efforts, the Gulf of Mexico offshore petroleum industry has grown to include some 4,000 offshore structures linked to land with 33,000 miles of pipeline and supported from land by hundreds of companies in areas such as fabrication, construction, transportation, diving, engineering, and environmental safety. The Gulf of Mexico has been the incubator for the offshore petroleum industry world-wide that is operating in the North Sea, Brazil, West Africa, and elsewhere.
Although the Gulf of Mexico offshore industry has evolved into a key piece of the modern world economy, it is little known, understood, or documented and its dynamic economic role is virtually invisible. In 1982, BOEM launched the first of three studies aimed to rectify this. The emphasis was on oral histories and life stories. This reflects the study’s goal of telling the story from the perspective of those who made the industry, who lived it, and who now look back trials and accomplishments from a new century's circumstances and expectations.