Ban Drilling: Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time?

"First rig sails away over drilling ban"
Houston Chronicle (July 9, 2010)

"Lawmakers and experts fear loss is only the start of offshore exodus"

"Diamond Offshore announced Friday that its Ocean Endeavor drilling rig will leave the Gulf of Mexico and move to Egyptian waters immediately - making it the first to abandon the United States in the wake of the BP oil spill and a ban on deep-water drilling.

"And the Ocean Endeavor's exodus probably won't be the last, according to oil industry officials and Gulf Coast leaders who warn that other companies eager to find work for the now-idled rigs are considering moving them outside the U.S.

"Devon Energy Corp. had been leasing the Endeavor to drill in the same region of the Gulf as BP's leaking Macondo well, which has been gushing crude since a lethal blowout April 20...."

I don't blame the folks running Diamond Offshore a bit. They've got a business to run and employees to consider, and they're in the oil well business.

Maybe it would be nice, if Diamond Offshore ran an environmentally-aware open-air craft boutique in Ghiradelli Square. They don't, and the current American administration decided that it was a good idea to shut down all drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

A decision which idled Diamond Offshore's operations in the Gulf, along with everybody else's.

I'm not surprised that one of the newer, portable rigs was moved to a place where the powers that be don't mind people drilling for oil - even if other people were making a mess with one of their wells.

If more outfits move their operations out, as they'll have to if the ban stays, I think this is going to hurt folks living around the Gulf - more.

More:

• "Oil in the Gulf of Mexico: Posts"
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