The Obama administration issued a new drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico Monday. Last month a federal court judge, citing oil drilling jobs, overturned the first deep water drilling moratorium. Ken Salazar, interior secretary, said he’d come back with one courts would accept. The first deep water drilling moratorium singled out drilling for oil at depths of 500 feet or more. The new drilling moratorium disregards depth and focuses only on drilling scenarios and know-how. Meanwhile, the 2010 oil spill within the Gulf of Mexico has until now dumped an estimated 140 million gallons of crude into the sea.
To all depths, the new drilling moratorium works
Last week, a federal appeals court rejected an appeal that was given by the interior department to restore its original offshore deep-water drilling moratorium, which halted the approval of any new permits for deep-water projects and suspended drilling on 33 exploratory wells. The Washington Post reports that Salazar made the announcement Monday, arguing that a drilling moratorium is nevertheless needed to ensure that oil and gas companies implement safety actions to reduce risks – and are prepared to deal with oil spills. Unlike the first moratorium, which applied to drilling rigs in waters of more than 500 feet, the new one applies to any deep-water floating facility with drilling activities.
Jobs in oil drilling are at risk
The new moratorium will last through Nov. 30th. Numerous permits could be given before that if drillers prove safe actions have been taken. Meanwhile, a New Orleans business group said the economic damage from a drilling moratorium would be worse than the toll taken by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico 2010. According to Business Week Michael Hecht of Greater New Orleans Inc. told the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Spill and Offshore Drilling at a listening to that the six-month drilling ban may affect as many as 24,000 oil drilling jobs in Louisiana. Hecht assumed the economic impact from the BP oil spill would be dwarfed by the impact from the moratorium.
Oil drilling companies can’t be trusted
Salazar disagrees with Hecht’s assessment of the outcome. In a statement Salazar said “A pause on deepwater drilling is essential and appropriate to protect communities, coasts, and wildlife from the risks that deep water drilling currently poses. I am basing my decision on evidence that grows every day of the industry’s inability in the deep water to contain a catastrophic blowout, respond to an oil spill and to operate safely.”
To leave the gulf is the first drilling rig
At the national commission hearing, the CEO of a service provider that is for offshore drillers said drilling rigs will leave the Gulf because of the drilling moratorium. So far, one has proven right. As outlined by the Houston Chronicle, on July 9 Diamond Offshore announced that its Ocean Endeavor drilling rig will leave the Gulf of Mexico and move to Egyptian waters right away — making it the first to abandon the gulf within the wake of the BP oil spill and also the drilling moratorium being tested in the courts.
Discover more info:
Washington Post
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/12/AR2010071203003.html?hpid=topnews
businessweek.com
businessweek.com/news/2010-07-12/economic-damage-of-drilling-ban-to-dwarf-oil-spill-hecht-says.html
Houston Chronicle
chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7101738.html
