On March 22, 2020, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards issued a proclamation declaring that "all individuals within the state of Louisiana are under a general stay-at-home order and are directed to stay home unless performing an essential activity." Essential oilfield workers appear exempt from the proclamation, which can be accessed here. Section 3(C) of the proclamation lists various essential worker activities, but does not expressly reference the oil and gas industry. However, the proclamation also refers to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) for an outline of other essential workers not listed. CISA includes as essential workers the following:
Petroleum workers:
- Petroleum product storage, pipeline, marine transport, terminals, rail transport, and road transport
- Crude oil storage facilities, pipeline, and marine transport
- Petroleum refinery facilities
- Petroleum security operations center employees and workers who support emergency response services
- Petroleum operations control rooms/centers
- Petroleum drilling, extraction, production, processing, refining, terminal operations, transporting, and retail for use as end-use fuels or feedstocks for chemical manufacturing
- Onshore and offshore operations for maintenance and emergency response
- Retail fuel centers such as gas stations and truck stops, and the distribution systems that support them
Natural and propane gas workers:
- Natural gas transmission and distribution pipelines, including compressor stations
- Underground storage of natural gas
- Natural gas processing plants, and those that deal with natural gas liquids
- Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facilities
- Natural gas security operations center, natural gas operations dispatch and control rooms/centers natural gas emergency response and customer emergencies, including natural gas leak calls
- Drilling, production, processing, refining, and transporting natural gas for use as end-use fuels, feedstocks for chemical manufacturing, or use in electricity generation
- Propane gas dispatch and control rooms and emergency response and customer emergencies, including propane leak calls
- Propane gas service maintenance and restoration, including call centers
- Processing, refining, and transporting natural liquids, including propane gas, for use as end-use fuels or feedstocks for chemical manufacturing
- Propane gas storage, transmission, and distribution centers
