Allow DW Drilling but not thru Prod Zone

It is called an agenda! Oil and obama don't mix!

SAD!

quote:

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I know that this plan has been offered up by several members of our congressional delegation but why would an oil company spend millions of dollars drilling a well with no idea of when they could hit the pay zone and start producing oil and or gas from the well? This

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because deepwater semi-submersible rigs and drillships are under long term contracts for the most part. so everyday, regardless of what's going on, you have to pay the rig contractor (transocean, diamond, noble, etc) the agreed upon dayrate -- which can be as high as $500k / day. on top of that, there may be another $500k / day of additional equipment on board (schlumberger, halliburton) plus long term contracts on high-spec supply boats (chouest for example).

it may not be efficient, but you can at least keep making progress on wells during the moratorium and put all of these obligations to good use.

if you go through the legal manuevering to break the contracts, you may end up behind the eight ball when the moratorium is lifted -- as the rig could be contracted by someone else or left the GOM entirely -- and you would have no way to meet your drilling obligations.