Drilling increases during the spring because days are longer and demand will increase shortly.
Don’t know about the accident, but activity increases seasonally.
Are you perhaps joking? This rig rents for $500,000 a day US and it drills 24 / 7 / 365. As to increased demand, any oil they find will not come on line for years.
Longer days have nothing to do with more drilling activity - it’s a 24/7/365 operation... The only thing that slows it down are delays due to weather (hurricanes in the fall, for example) and you see an increase of drilling in the winter in some areas like N. Canada when everything is frozen and areas are accessible... Deepwater drill ships like this one are booked solid for years in advance - I’m sure some exploration departs are scrambling to see the impact on their schedules but I would assume that BP had a long term contract on this ship so it’ll impact their exploration program...