Gulf of Mexico

Well, it looks like they may finally have the fucker under control. And according to the surveys, the damage is not as bad as thought, though there's still a lot of lingering doubt about the "dissipated" oil. Just where did it dissipate to? Will it be back? I can only hope for the best..

It's déjà vu all over again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h35H1KrXbM

New Gulf of Mexico oilrig explosion.

Here's the bit which I particularly noted:

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said the company had told him the seven active wells under production by the platform were shut down shortly after the fire broke out.

Click to expand...

I thought there was a moritorium? Or is this only on exploratory drilling?

In view of all that has happened, what has been done and what is now being done to verify that wells currently in production are operating safely? The idea that these idiots can be allowed to operate unsupervised and unregulated is just not funny. OK, this rig was under maintenance and not in production, mercifully, but WTF? How does it get to the stage where it can explode? Whatever caused this explosion, there's just no excuse, it should not be possible.

Well, yes, there is a moritorium on deep water drilling, but this wasn't technically a deep water rig. And besides, like you said, they weren't drilling, they were doing maintenance. And the fire was unrelated to the actual well or oil. So calm down, scounds, looks like it was just an accident. Even if safety regulations are in place, the human factor allows for accidents. Like the other day, I thought it was just a fart...

My nephew is an underwater rigger (i.e. SCUBA diver) for an inspection company in the gulf. He says everyone is back in production now, just over 600 wells throughout the gulf (many more if you add in the natural gas rigs).

While they can't drill NEW wells, all existing production is running full bore. He said his company isn't employed by BP as they have their own "in house" inspectors. Interesting to note that BP has more violations and fines than all the other gulf oil companies COMBINED.

Oh, hell yeah..like hundreds of violations versus a few. But I'm curious...what's with the production thing? I thought there was still a moratorium on deep water drilling?

Drilling, at the moment, not being done (although since it's a US moratorium, a foreign rig could be drilling in Mexican waters I assume).

Production, however is running at 100%.

I.E., existing wells are running, but drilling of new wells is temporarily halted.