ACCESS NUMBER: 30660-19902 

STUDY TITLE: A socioeconomic OCS Issue Analysis of Stakeholders in the Central 

Gulf of Mexico 

REPORT TITLE: Outer Continental Shelf Issues: Central Gulf of Mexico 

CONTRACT NUMBER: 14-35-0001-30660-19902 

SPONSORING OCS REGION: Gulf of Mexico 

APPLICABLE PLANNING AREA: Central Gulf of Mexico 

FISCAL YEARS OF PROJECT FUNDING: 1993; 1994 

COMPLETION DATE OF REPORT: 1995 

COSTS: FY 1993: $56,640; FY 1994: 41,496 

CUMULATIVE PROJECT COST: $98,136 

PROGRAM MANAGER: Robert Gramling 

AFFILIATION: University of Southwestern Louisiana 

ADDRESS: P.O. Box 43530, Lafayette, LA 70504 

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS*: Robert Gramling, Sarah Brabant, Craig J. Forsyth, C. 

Eddie Palmer 

KEY WORDS: Offshore Oil, Outer Continental Shelf, Coastal Issues, Coastal Tourism, 

Economic Development 

BACKGROUND: This report summarized the research effort and findings of an 

investigation of the issues associated with Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas 

activities in the Central Gulf of Mexico. Stakeholders assessed for the delineation of the 

issues associated with OCS oil and gas activities ranged across the offshore oil and gas 

industry; the offshore support sector; other direct and indirect coastal users; 

stakeholders that benefited from economic growth in general; concerned citizen groups, 

and public and government organizations. 

OBJECTIVES: (1) To identify and describe the various stakeholder groups in the 

coastal Central Gulf of Mexico, define their interests, and the degree of their concerns 

about Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas activities; (2) to identify the specific social and 

economic issues and concerns related to the Central Gulf of Mexico oil and gas activity 

that are seen as being important by different major stakeholders and other 
ACCESS NUMBER: 30660-19902 

knowledgeable individuals; (3) to identify the underlying assumptions held by various 

stakeholders concerning the effects of Outer Continental Shelf activities, which 

determine the position they take on the social and economic issues. 

DESCRIPTION: Throughout the course of the study 131 individuals in coastal 

communities in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana were interviewed concerning their 

perspectives on offshore oil and gas development. Selection of the sample 

communities occurred in May of 1993 in conjunction with MMS representatives. We 

examined census data at the county and community level, but in the end relied most 

heavily on our combined knowledge of coastal communities in Louisiana, Mississippi, 

and Alabama. Initially we selected four Louisiana communities. Cameron, Morgan City 

and Grand Isle were selected for their location on the coast, and their primarily blue 

collar association with the offshore oil sector. Grand Isle was also selected for its 

concentration of other direct and indirect coastal users, primarily concentrated around 

shrimping and tourism. Lafayette was selected for its white collar association with the 

offshore oil sector, having long been a regional center for offshore activity. We selected 

Gulfport, Biloxi and Pascagoula in Mississippi because they represented the 

overwhelming majority of the coastal Mississippi population, and a wide diversity of 

coastal uses and occupations. In Alabama we selected Mobile because it was a major 

port city, Dauphin Island for its other coastal users, and Gulf Shores and Fairhope 

primarily for their coastal tourism and retirement sites. 

Because the key informants constituted a previously unidentified and thus unknown 

population, a technique known as snowballing was utilized. This technique is 

specifically appropriate to field research. Snowball sampling is a method through which 

the researcher develops an ever-increasing set of sample observations. One 

respondent in the sample under study is asked to recommend others for interviewing, 

and each of the subsequently interviewed participants is asked for further 

recommendations. This is the only feasible type of sampling procedure which fit the 

requirements of the project to: 1) identify various stakeholder groups through a referral 

process and, 2) retain flexibility in the file d to identify and sample stakeholder groups as 

they are "discovered" through the sampling process. 

All of the interviews in the coastal communities were recorded. The tapes of the 

interview were transcribed during the fall of 1993 and spring 1994. The transcripts were 

then content analyzed for the emergence of issues across five locations, Lafayette, LA 

and vicinity, coastal Louisiana, coastal Mississippi, Mobile County Alabama and Baldwin 

County Alabama. 

SIGNIFICANT CONCLUSIONS: Both positive and negative economic and 

environmental issues emerged across the three states (Louisiana, Mississippi and 

Alabama) surveyed. While jobs and economic spinoffs emerged as issues in all regions 

they were more frequently mentioned in Louisiana. Negative economic impacts also 

came out as issues across the three states, but were more closely associated with the 

coastal tourism region of Alabama. There were marked differences in the issues 
ACCESS NUMBER: 30660-19902 

associated with regulating OCS activities with Louisiana respondents maintaining that 

the activity was too heavily regulated and Mississippi and Alabama respondents 

maintaining that careful regulation was necessary. There were also marked differences 

in the extent to which aesthetic considerations emerged as issues. In Louisiana 

aesthetic consideration did not emerge as an issue, while in Mississippi and Alabama 

they did. 

STUDY RESULTS: Several general trends can be seen although exceptions to these 

are also evident. In general, In Louisiana, where offshore activities have been ongoing 

for almost five decades, respondents generally focused on the issues of jobs and 

economic spinoffs and felt that the current offshore regulatory structure was 

burdensome and too restrictive. In contrast in Mississippi and Alabama, where coastal 

tourism was more important, the issues of potential aesthetic and environmental 

impacts were more evident, and respondents overwhelmingly agreed that careful 

regulations of the offshore industry was necessary if offshore development was to go 

forward. A fair amount of environmental concern associated with a number of specific 

issues was evident in all the sample areas except the Lafayette vicinity sample, and 

both individuals who expressed support for and opposition to offshore development 

expressed environmental concerns. This led to the conclusion that, at least in this case, 

stakeholders could not be characterized by neat mutually exclusive sets of issues, but 

had more complex mixes of stakes associated with the potential impacts of offshore 

development. Two groups (offshore fishermen, including commercial fishermen and 

shrimpers) focused on single issues (rigs as reefs and trash on the bottom respectively), 

and these groups were spread geographically across the survey region. 

STUDY PRODUCT: Gramling, R., S. Brabant, C.J. Forsyth, and C.E. Palmer. 1995. 

Outer Continental Shelf Issues: Central Gulf of Mexico. OCS Study MMS 95-0032. 

U.S. Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS 

Region, New Orleans, LA. 78pp. 

*P.I.'s affiliation may be different than that listed for Program Managers.