'Rig Row' in Pascagoula is home to drilling towers idled by moratorium

nola.com ^ | 08/10/10 | David Hammer, The Times-Picayune

[TornadoAlley3]

The Noble Frontier Driller's massive orange support columns and 175-foot steel derrick cut a majestic figure as it pulled into Signal International's east shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., last weekend, a casualty of President Barack Obama's six-month moratorium on deepwater oil and gas exploration.

[TornadoAlley3]

The sound of motors and machinery is deafening. In the guts of the semi-submersible Jim Thompson sits the rig’s blowout preventer, a 450-ton stack of valves and pistons thrust into the spotlight by the failure of the unit aimed at stopping a blowout of the Macondo well. The Jim Thompson’s BOP sits disassembled into two pieces for maintenance and so it can be upgraded to meet new standards imposed on all such devices after the April 20 Deepwater Horizon accident. Rust from spending almost 11 years on the sea floor has nearly erased the yellow stripe on one of the Jim Thompson’s two BOP control pods, the same type of unit that suffered a hydraulic leak on the Deepwater Horizon before the incident.

[Islander7]

Magnolia State Ping!

[crusty old prospector]

A third of our domestic oil production comes from the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. It is all part of Obamao’s master plan. If any of those out-of-work hands vote for a Democrat this November, I think all is lost in this country.

[stefanbatory]

the Jim Thompson? wth?

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Obama the clown strikes again.

[TornadoAlley3]

http://www.rigzone.com/data/rig_detail.asp?rig_id=514

[LibLieSlayer]

I am in Mississippi... blocks from the Gulf... you want to see idle... you should see my business this morning.

LLS

[TornadoAlley3]

I am sorry, Obama is not. Remember November

[LibLieSlayer]

You betcha!

LLS

[stefanbatory]

maybe that’s who Keith Overbite had in mind for his worst person in the world...he hates eeeeeeeeeevil oil, right?

[Orange1998]

Reality hits hard. The moratorium needs to be lifted right away.

[LibLieSlayer]

From your lips to GOD’s ears!

LLS

[bert]

Are there any oil rig related tourist attractions in Pascagoula?

We are planning a visit to the Mississippi/Alabama Gulf and i would be interested in such a place

[az_gila]

“...Rust from spending almost 11 years on the sea floor has nearly erased the yellow stripe on one of the Jim Thompson’s two BOP control pods...”

---

Hey, I'm impressed that there was enough metal left to hold the yellow paint stripe after 11 years in salt water...:^)

[LibLieSlayer]

Not that I know of... mostly gaming these days... pretty beaches and water. Katrina wiped out so much or our tourist industry but it is coming back slowly.

LLS