Stealth Moratorium in the Gulf hurting shallow water exploration

The shallow water portion of the offshore drilling moratorium was supposedly lifted on June 7.  But Secretariat Salazarovich has apparently been enforcing a de facto moratorium on shallow water drilling rigs as well.  From a Houston Chronicle story Wednesday:

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So far, permitting delays have idled 14 of the 46 available jackups in the Gulf and forced offshore companies to cut several hundred jobs. Each rig employs about 100 workers and supports many additional indirect jobs at supply boat companies, oil field services companies and other businesses.

If the situation doesn't change, 25 rigs will be idle by the end of August and 30 by the end of September as existing permits expire, according to figures provided by the Shallow Water Energy Security Coalition, an industry group formed in May to call attention to the issue.

"And if we're going to continue on the path that we're on, just wait," said James Noe, a senior vice president with Hercules Offshore and one of several industry executives who met Wednesday with the Houston Chronicle editorial board.

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Why is the Obama regime holding up permits for shallow water exploration?

It appears that the regime is painting the entire marine oil and gas drilling industry with a broad brush.  It bears noting that the Deepwater Horizon spill was the first serious offshore drilling accident in more than 50 years, and the vast majority of exploration has been in shallow water.  Shallow water rigs have either legs or cable anchoring systems that allow them to attach to the sea floor.  This means blowout preventers go on the rig deck, not the bottom of the ocean, which makes the shallow water operation infinitely more safe.  Even if problems do occur on the bottom, the depths are such that divers are able to reach the wellhead. 

There’s no reason for a pile of new regulations governing shallow water drilling. The industry has a decades-long record of safe operations. It just goes to show that this regime is absolutely clueless about the impacts of its decisions.  No one fails to learn the law of unintended consequences worse than Obama and Secretariat Salazarovich.

Either that, or the regime is committed to destroying the offshore oil & gas industry altogether, erasing tens of thousands of jobs, ensuring long term dependence on foreign oil and driving long run energy costs higher.

h/t Washington Insider

Gimme some feedback in the comments.

Oil Platforms in the Gulf of Mexico - Worth the Risk?

A lot is being written and said about offshore oil drilling and safety. Is it worth the risk? As a resident of the Gulf Coast, I've pretty much accepted the fact that oil and natural gas are important enough to the nation's economy and national security to warrant taking some risk. And, over the last three decades or so, there have been some instances. But when you look at the sheer number of assets in the Gulf, the number of incidents pales in comparison to what's being produced.

The map below shows the complete plot of all oil and gas drilling and production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Not all of these are active, but every point represents a well, drilling rig, production platform or capped well.  There are approximately 4,300 points on the map.  If we included all locations drilled since recordkeeping began in the early 1970's, there would be approximately 6,600 locations.

Click the map image for a larger version.

From 1979 through the Deepwater Horizon incident, the Gulf of Mexico has witnessed five major oil spill events.

IXTOC, 1979
The first was the Ixtoc blowout, which is believed to be the largest accidental spill in history.  The well blew in June 1979 and wasn't capped until March, 1980.  Between ten and thirty thousand barrels of crude oil were lost each day over the eight month period.  Estimates vary widely, but as much as 4.8 million barrels were lost.

BURMA AGATE, 1979
Later the same year, the Burma Agate collided with a freighter near Galveston, Texas on November 1, 1979. The ship exploded,  killing 31 crew members, and spilled an estimated 2.6 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The ship and oil continued to burn until January, 1980.

MEGA BORG, 1990

The gulf stayed relatively incident free until 1990, when the Norwegian megatanker was transferring oil to smaller ships (called "lighters"). The megatanker suffered an explosion in its pump room, caught fire, and either spilled or burned 4.2 million gallons of oil for about a week. The fire was so large and so intense, firefighters could do little more than pump seawater onto the fire.

TAMPA BAY FUEL OIL SPILL, 1993
Early on the morning of August 10, three barges carrying fuel oil and jet fuel collided in Tampa Bay, collectively spilling an estimated 14 million gallons of petroleum products.  State and federal responders mobilized rapidly to contain the material, and their response (plus some help from Mother Nature in the form of favorable tides) mitigated much of the potential damage.

 

HURRICANES KATRINA AND RITA, 2005
US Coast Guard estimated that approximately seven to ten million gallons of oil and petroleum distillates were spilled during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  The losses were from various sources, including pipelines, storage tanks, drilling rigs, production platforms and industrial plants.

Creating one of the most famous images of the storms' havoc, Katrina ripped the Ocean Warwick platform from her seabed moorings, and ran her aground at Dauphin Island, just south of Mobile, Alabama.  The owners had hoped to salvage the rig and repair it.  But Hurricane Rita's storm surge (which reflooded New Orleans) hammered her again and she was scrapped in place the following year.

Those are pretty nasty events. But 31 years, anywhere between 4,400 and 6,600 platforms or wells, and only five major accidents? I'm thinking that offshore oil and gas production is about as safe as say, flying on a commercial jet.

Is it worth the risk to fly?

Extra Point: The red-tinted polygon on the map shows an estimate of the current size and location of the Deepwater Horizon spill.