Posted on 12/08/2010 9:20:09 AM PST by Nachum
ABOARD SEAHAWK 2007, Gulf of Mexico — For the 31 workers on this jackup oil rig, the waiting is finally over. In recent weeks, they have been doing basic chores like painting handrails and scrubbing the deck while the federal government reviewed Castex Energy’s application to drill a natural gas well in 150 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico — a normally quick process that turned glacial after the BP oil spill on April 20 prompted regulators to shut down almost all new drilling in the region.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Barry Obama is just a thumb-sucking bystander, right NYT?
The list, ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
The story fails to mention that today there are 572 more rigs drilling for oil and gas in the United States than there were one year ago.
The NYT gets it wrong again.
Is that including onshore?
Baker Hughes rig count:
http://gis.bakerhughesdirect.com/RigCounts/default2.aspx
Also see this:
http://investor.shareholder.com/bhi/rig_counts/rc_index.cfm
Yes, this week there are 1713 rigs in operation in the US, that number includes land and offshore rigs. Last year at this time, there were only 1141 rigs in operation in the US.
Thanks for the reply. I was also googling after I posted. Drill counts are an interesting piece of data to track.
In my area drilling had taken a hard hit right at the end of ‘08, but I see it rebounding now. So the data confirms what I see. Drilling isn’t at the rate it was at its peak, but it is back strong, at least onshore.
Offshore Gulf of Mexico is running at about 50% utilization, apparently. Half the rigs are working. So there is room for improvement there. Hopefully those guys will go back to work soon.
I saw an interesting article the other day about an offshore complex Chevron is planning about 250 miles offshore. That caught my attention.
More info here.
Thanks.
But wasn’t the moratorium on deep water drilling?
150 feet is not deep water.
It’s on all drilling. If you stall the permit process indefinitely you’ve created a moratorium. Have you not?
Do you have a cite for that?
I could sure use it.
Thanks
I guess.
But the claim made in the other thread was that the moratoriaum was only on deep water drilling.
The natural gas exploration on land has literally blossomed in the past 5 years. I hate to use the term ‘exploded’, for obvious reasons.
My car doesn’t run on NG though. Not sure about yours...
I have a relative who’s worked 300+ days in the past 12m on land rigs.
None of which explains giving Petrobras (Soros) the permit, and technology, and *money* to drill in our waters. While denying US companies the same. Ensuring that rigs in our waters, now go to Brazil and Venezuela.
This is Obama and Salazar. Do you believe them, or your lying eyes?
Moratorium, stated, on deepwater drilling. Issuing no/few permits for shallow water drilling is the same thing. Only not stated directly.
You need oil rigs to drill dumb*sses from the NYTs!
Idiot in chief was told this almost a year ago!
******
Oil jobs start moving overseas
06/28/10
Thanks to President Obama and the soon-to-be-reimposed drilling moratorium, our loss is becoming West Africa’s gain.
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–Executives from oil and gas companies on Monday concluded an hour-long meeting with U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar without securing promises from the government to lift a deepwater-drilling moratorium imposed after a disastrous BP PLC (BP) oil spill…
“Numerous operators told Secretary Salazar that they were in the final stages of moving rigs, deepwater rigs out of the Gulf of Mexico and to West Africa and the Middle East,” according to a person familiar with the matter. “We were frankly disappointed at the lack of serious attention that was paid by the Department of the Interior on the horrible economic impact that the Department of Interior’s policies are having on the industry and on communities along the Gulf Coast.”
Read more at the Washington Examiner:
Shortly after the moratorium was put in place, salazar complained that his agency was way understaffed and underfunded. This was his pre excuse for not being able to keep up with the workload of new permits. No word on if he got his increased funding, but still they delay as if there are 3 people reviewing permits.
and their media is not even curious.
Don’t ya just love people who know nothing about anything!
******
President Obama is expected to outline his plan for energy security in a speech this week
Obama to turn attention to energy issues – barring disaster
Los Angeles Times - Michael A. Memoli - 1 hour ago
He said the decision was “part of a broader strategy”
After a speech meant to bring clarity to U.S. engagement in crises abroad, President Obama will turn his attention to what aides say will be a sustained focused on energy issues in the coming weeks.
On Wednesday, Obama will outline his plan for America’s energy security in a speech at Georgetown University in Washington. It will be followed with a visit Friday to a UPS facility in nearby Landover, Md., in which Obama will inspect energy-efficient vehicles operated by major businesses like AT&T, FedEx and PepsiCo.
Earlier in March, Obama called a news conference to address the rising cost of gasoline and called for “a comprehensive energy strategy that pursues both more energy production and more energy conservation.”
“For two years, the administration has canceled dozens of oil and gas leases all across America. It’s raised permit fees. It’s shut down deep-water drilling in the Gulf. It won’t even allow a conversation about exploring for oil in a remote, 2,000-acre piece of land in northern Alaska that experts think represents one of our best opportunities for a major oil find,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday. “In the midst of average gas prices approaching $4 a gallon and a chronic jobs crisis, the White House plans to make the climate for job growth worse.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-energy-20110330,0,1482081.story
U.S. energy behemoth Chevron Corp. (CVX - Analyst Report) has got the green light for conducting oil and natural gas exploratory drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The approval by the U.S. regulators is the first for ‘completely new exploration’ in the region – i.e. tapping a reservoir from which oil or gas has never been produced – since British giant BP plc’s (BP - Analyst Report) oil rig disaster in April last year.
Chevron’s exploration plan will see the super major drill a new exploratory deepwater well in 6,750 feet of water in Keathley Canyon Block 736, located 216 miles off the Louisiana coastline.
Chevron began initial drilling on the well in March 2010 but was forced to stop midway (in early June) when the Obama administration imposed a deepwater drilling ban because of the oil spill. The revised permit – the fifth approved by the federal agency since the deepwater Horizon rig explosion but the first that provides for exploratory drilling into a new field – will now allow the company to complete the well in the offshore reservoir.
According to the U.S. Interior Department, which oversees offshore drilling, the project has been given the go-ahead only after the fulfillment of strict safety and environmental requirements for offshore operations that have been imposed in the aftermath of the BP oil spill.
Chevron wins fifth deepwater drilling permit for exploration
Mar 24, 2011 ... The first deepwater permit approved for a completely new exploration well in the US Gulf of Mexico
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