Petroleum Scientist 1, 2, or 3 (Enforcement)

State of Louisiana•Baton Rouge, LA

22h•Onsite

About The Position

The Office of Enforcement (OENF) is dedicated to ensuring regulatory compliance and protecting public and environmental interests through rigorous inspection programs, timely enforcement actions, and transparent oversight. The Office emphasizes proactive monitoring, consistent regulatory enforcement, and transparent reporting. Its operations are designed to uphold compliance standards, swiftly address violations, and maintain trust and accountability within Louisiana’s regulated community. OENF consolidates all inspectors and enforcement staff into one office to maximize efficiency, consistency, and accountability. District inspectors, pipeline safety, UIC, coastal field services, and mining enforcement now operate under a unified structure that emphasizes cross-training, career progression, and consistent enforcement decisions. This position is responsible for coordinating and directing the technical and administrative functions relating to the program’s field surveillance, enforcement, and compliance activities of injection wells within a public safety program that regulates the environmental impacts of statewide energy resource exploration, development and storage, and the subsurface mining of minerals pursuant to the Louisiana UIC Program and certain additional activities regulated under the Louisiana Administrative Code, Title 43, Parts XIX and XVII.

Requirements

A bachelor’s degree in a geoscience field or engineering.

Nice To Haves

High degree of knowledge in specialized field inspection activities on all aspects of oil and gas resource recovery and management, surface/subsurface waste management options, hydrocarbon storage, and subsurface mineral solution mining, particularly in the area of day-to-day field operations.
Work in concert with policies, procedures, rules and regulations of the division, and the Department of Conservation & Energy (C&E).
Work may also be performed under specific requirements of the UIC, EPA, or other state or federal agencies.

Responsibilities

Assisting with the closure of abandoned commercial exploration and production waste management facilities, including providing administrative and technical assistance in preparing and evaluating environmental site assessment and closure plans, and preparing Requests for Proposals for contractor bidding.
Establishing standard operating procedures for field staff and other programs, which are used by staff and by the regulated community to ensure compliance with rules and regulations.
Assisting clerical staff in scheduling, preparing, distributing, and collecting statutory and regulatory fees and civil penalties of the Injection and Mining Section.
Scheduling the preparation, mail-out, collection, and audit of the divisional self-monitoring reports and Organization Reports.
Reviewing various technical and field reports/inspections and making recommendations to the Petroleum Scientist Manager or higher divisional personnel on matters of regulatory noncompliance.
Managing the timely submission by various operators of required technical and operational self-monitoring reports.
Performing audits of operator self-monitoring reports for technical accuracy, completeness, and consistency of information to evaluate operator conformance/compliance to statutes, regulations, or permit conditions.
Performing timely follow-up audits on inaccurate, incomplete, and delinquent operator filings (reports, fees, etc.) to ensure timely compliance by operators.
Making recommendations to Petroleum Scientist Manager or higher divisional personnel on matters of regulatory noncompliance and determining the appropriate enforcement action to levy against delinquent or noncompliant operators.
Performing additional duties as assigned.