Embargo Off!

[guido911]

Order Shmorder...Salazar to issue new moratorium:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/22/national/main6608434.shtml

[nathanm]

Sounds like he's going to cure the deficiencies in the original order. Nothing wrong with that.

[RecycleMichael]

Turns out the judge who overturned the offshore drilling ban has investments in offshore drilling...

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=13&articleid=20100623_13_0_NEWORL594955

[Gaspar]

Turns out the judge who overturned the offshore drilling ban has investments in offshore drilling...

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=13&articleid=20100623_13_0_NEWORL594955

Hard to find someone with a stock portfolio who doesn't.

[Conan71]

Turns out the judge who overturned the offshore drilling ban has investments in offshore drilling...

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=13&articleid=20100623_13_0_NEWORL594955

That's pretty weak tea:

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, a 1983 appointee of President Ronald Reagan, reported owning less than $15,000 in stock in 2008 in Transocean Ltd., the company that owned the sunken Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

Feldman overturned the ban Tuesday, saying the government simply assumed that because one rig exploded, the others pose an imminent danger, too.

The White House promised an immediate appeal. The Interior Department had imposed the moratorium last month in the wake of the BP disaster, halting approval of any new permits for deepwater projects and suspending drilling on 33 exploratory wells.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement late Tuesday that within the next few days he would issue a new order imposing a moratorium that eliminates any doubt it is needed and appropriate.

Several companies that ferry people and supplies and provide other services to offshore rigs argued that the moratorium was arbitrarily imposed after the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers and blew out a well 5,000 feet underwater. It has spewed anywhere from 67 million to 127 million gallons of oil.

Feldman's 2008 financial disclosure report — the most recent available
— also showed investments in Ocean Energy, a Houston-based company, as well as Quicksilver Resources, Prospect Energy, Peabody Energy, Halliburton, Pengrowth Energy Trust, Atlas Energy Resources, Parker Drilling and others. Halliburton was also involved in the doomed Deepwater Horizon project.

Feldman did not respond to requests for comment and to clarify whether he still holds some or all of these investments.

Although Feldman ruled in favor of oil interests Tuesday, one expert said his reasoning appeared sound because the six-month ban was overly broad.

"There's been some concern that he is biased toward the industry, but I don't see it in this opinion," said Tim Howard, a Northeastern University law professor who also represents businesses and people claiming economic losses in several spill-related lawsuits. "They overreacted and just shut an industry down, rather than focusing on where the problems are."

That was what Feldman essentially said in his ruling, writing that the blanket moratorium "seems to assume that because one rig failed and although no one yet fully knows why, all companies and rigs drilling new wells over 500 feet also universally present an imminent danger."

Feldman's ruling prohibits federal officials from enforcing the moratorium until a trial is held. He wrote: "If some drilling equipment parts are flawed, is it rational to say all are? Are all airplanes a danger because one was? All oil tankers like Exxon Valdez? All trains? All mines? That sort of thinking seems heavy-handed, and rather overbearing."
At least two major oil companies, Shell and Marathon, said they would wait to see how the appeals play out before resuming drilling.

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=13&articleid=20100623_13_0_NEWORL594955

I think Feldman's ruling was sound, if you apply the logic of what if we had shut down the entire oil tanker inudstry when Exxon Valdez went aground.  I do agree more needs to be done to understand precisely what happened and how to prevent this from happening ever again and honestly putting a moratorium on deepwater drilling until there are sufficient answers is rational.  However, setting a six month time-line was quite arbitrary. 

If someone could build a better blow-out preventer, they could make a huge fortune on it.

[nathanm]

33 wells is not by any means an entire industry. It makes for a great sound bite, though.

[Gaspar]

Hey! I just found out that I have some RIG stock too.  I suppose I should refrain from any additional commentary.

For some reason I didn't make the RIG/Transocean connection.

[nathanm]

Hey! I just found out that I have some RIG stock too.  I suppose I should refrain from any additional commentary.

For some reason I didn't make the RIG/Transocean connection.

As long as you're not making legal decisions that directly affect the value of that stock, I think you're fine.

[Conan71]

33 wells is not by any means an entire industry. It makes for a great sound bite, though.

How good a sound bite would it be if you were one of the 10,000 or so facing extinction of their job?

"Drilling suspension will result in a loss of thousands of Louisiana jobs in the first two to three weeks and possibly over 10,000 in a few months."

http://nicedeb.wordpress.com/2010/06/23/the-george-sorosdrilling-moratorium-connection/

[nathanm]

How good a sound bite would it be if you were one of the 10,000 or so facing extinction of their job?

"Drilling suspension will result in a loss of thousands of Louisiana jobs in the first two to three weeks and possibly over 10,000 in a few months."

They're not facing extinction of their job, they're facing 5 more months without work. I grant that it's not their fault and hope they're able to draw enough unemployment (and emergency compensation from BP) to get them through the period.

I don't think there's anyone arguing that new rules don't need to be implemented. Why would we let companies start new wells when we don't have mechanisms in place to ensure their environmental safety nor the resources to handle another deep water blowout?

[Conan71]

They're not facing extinction of their job, they're facing 5 more months without work. I grant that it's not their fault and hope they're able to draw enough unemployment (and emergency compensation from BP) to get them through the period.

I don't think there's anyone arguing that new rules don't need to be implemented. Why would we let companies start new wells when we don't have mechanisms in place to ensure their environmental safety nor the resources to handle another deep water blowout?

If the rigs go to Brazil, China, or elsewhere to get work, their job goes with it.  It's costly to have the equipment sitting around so it's got to be producing a return by drilling.  Then what happens is transportation companies, provisioners, and other vendors lose business which would have gone to those 33 rigs which are now off somewhere else.

I agree we need to have a grasp on what happened to help prevent something like this from ever happening again.  I think most of the answers are known at this point and that the blow-out preventer was not properly operated.  I have no problem with a cautious approach to further drilling but turning it into political theater by creating arbitrary deadlines like six months doesn't necessarily ensure anything other than 10,000 people sitting on their hands drawing up government unemployment benefits from an already dry treasury.

[nathanm]

If the rigs go to Brazil, China, or elsewhere to get work, their job goes with it.  It's costly to have the equipment sitting around so it's got to be producing a return by drilling.  Then what happens is transportation companies, provisioners, and other vendors lose business which would have gone to those 33 rigs which are now off somewhere else.

I agree we need to have a grasp on what happened to help prevent something like this from ever happening again.  I think most of the answers are known at this point and that the blow-out preventer was not properly operated.  I have no problem with a cautious approach to further drilling but turning it into political theater by creating arbitrary deadlines like six months doesn't necessarily ensure anything other than 10,000 people sitting on their hands drawing up government unemployment benefits from an already dry treasury.

It's not arbitrary at all, though. As I've mentioned repeatedly, Obama has said that it's an estimate of how long it will take to come up with the new regulations and testing procedures, and that if that is done before the six months is up, the moratorium will be lifted early.

Also, these drill ships, they move. Just as they can move to Brazil, they can move back here when there's business here to be done. IIRC, Q4000 (it could have been one of the other recently arrived ships) was somewhere across the Atlantic when the blowout happened, yet now it's in the GoM flaring oil and gas.

[Conan71]

It's not arbitrary at all, though. As I've mentioned repeatedly, Obama has said that it's an estimate of how long it will take to come up with the new regulations and testing procedures, and that if that is done before the six months is up, the moratorium will be lifted early.

Also, these drill ships, they move. Just as they can move to Brazil, they can move back here when there's business here to be done. IIRC, Q4000 (it could have been one of the other recently arrived ships) was somewhere across the Atlantic when the blowout happened, yet now it's in the GoM flaring oil and gas.

If a drill ship starts drilling a hole elsewhere, they won't pull up stakes and rush back.  It may well be committed for five years at a location.

[nathanm]

If a drill ship starts drilling a hole elsewhere, they won't pull up stakes and rush back.  It may well be committed for five years at a location.

I don't think it takes five years to drill a well, even in a mile of water. Maybe I'm wrong about that.

Unless you think that the oil companies with leases in the GoM will be content to let them lie fallow out of spite?