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Deepwater Drilling Moratorium Already Kicking LA’s A$$

By: Steve Maley (Diary)  |  June 8th, 2010 at 04:05 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

It will be a long time before Louisiana and the Gulf South recover from the devastation. I’m not referring to the oil spill. No, it’s the willful and senseless act of a President, desperately searching for some way to control events.

It might have made sense to slow down, to reconsider safety procedures, or to step up regulatory vigilence. Instead, Obama leaped off a cliff with no Plan B, thus guaranteeing the loss of thousands of jobs and the permanent dislocation of the deepwater drilling fleet to foreign shores.

Three deepwater drilling rigs to be moved from sites south of Cameron Parish

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. announced that it is shutting down three exploratory drilling rigs in the deepwater Gulf, all off the Louisiana coast, and assured shareholders that it would move its operations “from the Gulf to other areas of our global portfolio” so it could meet annual production goals.

The announcement seemed to confirm fears among some shipbuilders and vessel operators that Obama’s six-month stoppage could effectively shut down their work for at least two years and force immediate layoffs. Chett Chaisson, executive director of Port Fourchon, said at least two port tenants, who declined to be named, are poised to announce layoffs, although none have been confirmed as of late Monday.


Oh, and this really gets me…

For his part, Obama tried to reassure Louisiana businesses that he is aware of the economic pain they are enduring. He said the Small Business Administration is ready to provide bridge loans and the Department of Commerce will help document damages for BP to pay. He said he’s confident the local industries will survive.

“They’ve gone through all kinds of stuff the last 50, 100 years, and they bounce back, and they’re going to bounce back this time,” the president said in a press briefing Monday. “They’re going to need help from the entire country. They’re going to need constant vigil and attention from this administration, and that’s what they’re going to get.”

That’s of little consolation to [marine transportation executive Paul] Candies, who, like many others in South Louisiana, doubts Obama shares his interests.

“I don’t think he has a clue,” Candies said. “It doesn’t take a guy with a lot of imagination to think about the 10,000-plus jobs that could dry up here.”

Mr. Obama, I don’t want an SBA loan. I don’t have a claim against BP. I don’t want help from the entire country. I don’t need or want your constant vigil and attention.

I just want you to go back to Chicago and stop “fixing” things.

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COMMENTS

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  • http://www.thehayride.com MacAoidh

    …has so dramatically violated the economy of a state in American history.

    The only thing which would come to mind is slavery in 1860, which would be a totally obnoxious comparison since domestic oil and gas is so clearly an enabler of freedom.

    But even then, the comparison doesn’t work. Lincoln’s election in 1860 merely heralded an end to the expansion of slavery. He didn’t sign the Emancipation Proclamation until three years later.

    Outside of that, I can’t think of an example which would even do this justice.

    Revolutions have begun over much less. OUR REVOLUTION began over much less.

    • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Vladimir

      Many people operate under the misconception that LA gets a big chunk of Federal revenue from offshore.

      Not true.

      LA supplies the workers and the shore bases. In return, we get first crack at refining, processing and using the hydrocarbons as chemical feedstock.

      LA gets only a sliver from near-shore fields that slop over the state-Federal boundary.

      100% of the deepwater revenues go to the Feds. The proposal to change that doesn’t kick in until 2016, IIRC.

      • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

        was passed with all the programs taking effect immediately, so that we all could have experienced bankrupt coal, oil and gas industries; $8/gal gas and doctor shortages before Novembers ’10 and ’12.

  • Crowe

    Mr. Obama, I don?t want an SBA loan. I don?t have a claim against BP. I don?t want help from the entire country. I don?t need or want your constant vigil and attention.

    Exactly right. The industry thrives not because of the government’s beneficence or the watchful eye of a President. The “help” the industry “receives” from the entire country that keeps it afloat is this thing called *revenue* from the sail of a good or service, in this case, oil.

    But the Community Organizer-in-Chief, since he has no friggin’ clue how enterprise actually works, probably couldn’t distinguish a balance sheet from a balance beam his daughter uses in gymnastics, and can’t fathom a problem that government involvement and community organizing couldn’t help, has pulled out that one hammer he has and is beating the stuffing out of this one.

    Mr. Presient, Jsut stop. Lie down before you hurt yourself, and the rest of us. Go back to Chicago. Admit you’re in way over your head. Stop feigning competence and embarrassing the rest of us.

    So frustrated.

  • romeg

    to abrogate contracts?

    Do these oil companies and drilling companies not have contracts that permit them to do the exploration and development of these fields?

    • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Vladimir

      Regular rules of business & common law do not seem to apply to the government.

      Ref: The Deepwater Royalty Relief debacle. If two private parties had entered into that agreement, the lease form would dictate. But in this case, language was left out, and many made the argument that the ‘spirit’ of the agreement, not its plain language, should prevail.

      • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

        the moratorium om deep water oil drilling? Does it apply to foreign countries in the Gulf and near Cuba?

        • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
          • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Vladimir

            http://www.mms.gov/aboutmms/OCSLA/ocslahistory.htm

            It is in international waters, but the Exclusive Economic Zone extends out to 200 miles.

          • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

            the people of the Gulf, and quite frankly this whole nation, so vital is the work done down there. At a time when expanding oil exploration would provide great paying jobs and supply of a THE vital resource for the economic engine, it is a a crime that Obama is killing jobs.

            Are you optimistic about the efforts of BP and the Coast Guard going forward? Is progress being made now?

          • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Vladimir

            The plan now seems to be to capture as much oil as possible, all interventions having failed.

            One relief well should do the trick. That’s the ultimate fix.

            Thanks for your kind words GC.

          • dennism

            you wouldn’t think he had a brane in his head.

      • Scope

        one being the Bandon one you posted about, were pulled the day after they were given.

        • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Vladimir

          Operators have to furnish data on all BOPs. Some may have to do additional environmental study.

          • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

            Common sense suggests that if more land and shallow water oil drilling were allowed, there would not be the need for any or so much deep water drilling.

            But given that the shallow water areas have been tapped so much, is it true that the only reason we have deep water drilling is due to the restrictions on shallow water?

            Has BP a history of deep water drilling unrelated to shallow water accessibility of availability?

  • jaybo

    There are very intelligent people in this world that share this same character defect. They have tons of education and multiple abbreviations after their names but cannot make a decision if their life depended on it.

    I know that some will point to the agenda successes so far as proof that I am wrong but these are not valid comparisons. These agenda items were driven by politicos within The Democratic Party. The President merely reiterated and supported these policies. True decision making skill comes in moments when the unexpected happens and you have to choose between imperfect options or proceed ahead and adjust your plan as you go.

    The BP disaster is a picture perfect example of a leader that cannot decide on a course of action. President Obama is another Jimmy Carter and that is a very dangerous thing to have……….

    • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

      under stress decisions on Georgia, Ukraine, Iran and Israel that were all bad.

  • The_Gadfly

    The link indicates Candies’s first name is Otto, not Paul.

    I’m having a hard time telling what the hard numbers are on the potential unemployment. At one place in the article it indicates 10,000 jobs, at another 100,000. Totaling up specific quotes in the article I come up with about 6,000 specific projected cuts. Any idea whether the 10,000 is a hard cut number and the 100,000 takes into account the multiplier affect? I ask because if the 100,000 is a hard cut number, that multiplier affect could be sufficient all by its lonesome to kick off the second part of the double-dip recession I’ve been anticipating. I mean 100,000 jobs lost last month would have been a net decline for last month’s unemployment numbers if you exclude the temporary census worker jobs, which any sane person must.

    • The_Gadfly

      Most Americans didn’t realize that when The Big 0 said he was going to “fix the economy” they didn’t realize he meant in the veterinarian sense.

      Totally agree with your conclusion.

    • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Vladimir
      • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Vladimir

        Nobody really knows, but I’m pretty sure 100,000 would include a multiplier.

        If there are 33 rigs, each has a direct working complement of 250 or so (2 crews of +/- 125 working 14 days on/ 14 off).

        Each offshore job has 4 jobs ashore and in support (boats, helicopters, etc.)

        1,250 per rig x 33 rigs is 41,250 direct jobs.

        • The_Gadfly

          I now have a firmer foundation from which to think and argue.

    • baserunr

      BP is losing about $500 per minute just in the value of the oil that is discharging into the water. If we are going to shut down dozens of rigs, or more (Vladimir probably knows more accurately) that’s a lot of revenue that not only does BP not collect, but that it can’t pay to employees and subcontractors. For a dozen rigs, or any number of rigs with a total flow 12x the size of Deepwater Horizon, the numbers are about $250 million a month. Kinda dwarfs the amount that Sen. Mary was able to extort for passing the Healthcare debacle…..

      • gekster

        Wich by now is into the billions, and that lost from the ban itself.

    • ladyimpactohio

      Not counting all the ancillary workers.

      http://conservative-outlooks.com/2010/06/03/billions-of-dollars-thousands-of-jobs-lost-with-obamas-gulf-drilling-moratorium/

      Here is a comment on my website re: this post:

      Hello my name is Nancy Paul. My husband worked for a company in Scott, La. who called and informed us that my husband no longer has a job due oil spill disaster. Our family has no income and we have two children, home, car note, and ect..we are on our way to loosing everything. Has our government bother to send help to our family. This is devastating for our family because I have not seen any offers of help besides the fishing industry. My husband has applied to laworks for oil spill clean up and hopes to get that phone call. I have no groceries but a for a few days. I am just so angry that BP neglegence has not only cost Louisiana some of our heritage but also our families lively hood. I wonder if BP will be responsible for all the men/women who loose jobs offshore!!!!!

      concerned & sign by an angry wife and mother!!

  • Locked and Loaded

    I like it as a verb, and it involves my boot and – hmmm, let me think.

  • conservvoter

    his master plan of being force fed dependence on the gov’t. We see what he’s up to, and I can only hope and pray that this comes back to take a big ole junk out of his rear end.

    • stephaniet

      May I assume you mean either “hunk” or “chunk”? Because junk sounds funny.

  • gwalt

    Can the state of LA sue to stop the moratorium? Seems like just letting him do it gets him somewhat off the hook.

    Can Vitter push something? How about the RNC getting a campaign out:

    You were wrong then Mr. Obama and you are wrong now.

    The more people hear about the moratorium, the better. I am running out to fill up my diesel and then buy locking gas caps. There will be blood.

    • ladyimpactohio

      http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/06/03/03greenwire-deepwater-companies-pull-up-stakes-and-some-ma-10130.html

      We all know how well that goes.

  • Scope

    why Top Kill didn’t work? Seems with the cap, with the 4 vents open, it is still spewing big time, and, no one can determine how much is coming out. And, I’m hearing numbers all over the board for how much is being captured by the ships. Now I’m hearing that a larger riser cap will be installed next month. Why next month?

    Also, being the expert on this issue, do you find credibility in the claims on this site, particularly to the dispersant issue?

    http://www.blogster.com/joannemor/bombshell-expose-the-real-reason-the-oil-still-flows-into-the-gulf-of-mexico

    • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Vladimir

      In general, don’t believe conspiracy theories. This one is particularly lame.

      Top kill didn’t work for one of 2 reasons: if the well failed at the bottom of the casing, it’s because the well is too strong to be overcome.

      If the well failed at the top, then they couldn’t get enough mud to stop the flow; they only had a fighting chance if the flow was coming from the bottom.

      BTW, I heard the other day that the bill for the mud they pumped away during the top kill was $10 million, not counting the cost to pump it.

  • http://www.skiloveland.com skicougar

    For those of you who don’t know, Anadarko is HQ’d in the woodlands and gobbled up kerr-mcgee a few years ago who has offices in greenspoint; both in north Houston.

    I know plenty that work for Anadarko as former kerr-mcgee workers, I sure “hope” Obama isnt costing them their job or making them move to Aberdeen Scotland(the HQ for their north sea operations). Yeah, i know its BPs fault; but Obamas the one cutting the GOM’s arm off.

    But let’s look at the bright side, if you are looking for a good deal on a house in the woodlands, they might start popping up.

  • johnCV

    This move is a huge success for 0bama on any number of levels. But to see it, you have to shift your paradigm from one that believes our leader seeks to advance America and its people, to one of a would-be ruler who has no other relation to this country other than quirk of fate to have been born here. Who harbors deep and resentful emotions about this country.

    First, by ceasing drilling operations (and eventually production), 0bama is demonstrating his ability to ?command? and to get ?something done?. He confirms to those who still look to the MSM for their daily dose of pablum, that he is indeed the Ruler. This is vital to any aspiring despot ? image is everything, especially one of power and inevitability.

    The second is really a twofer ? by coming down on those who produce the evil black liquid, he fortifies his sagging bona fides with the Green movement who have been none to happy with him thus far. He also advances an ?Energy Free America? doctrine that is just beneath the surface of most leftists. America without a stable energy base will fall apart because (like it or not), much of this society is based on cheap and plentiful energy. 0bama has the ability to implement the Euro-style energy policies without having to get any pesky treaties signed. All this under cover of ?saving the planet?. As a bonus, he gets to beat up (again) on another corporation. Expect to see bills being advanced to make the US Govt a partner in all future energy exploration/production – for the sakes of the children of course.

    A third winner for 0bama is that the states punished by this disaster, directly and indirectly, are all red states. He can exact a vindictive pleasure that those who will suffer most were never supporters of his and can do him little political harm. Ask those who perished in the Kentucky ice storms or the floods in Tennessee. He never went there and only barely acknowledged the events. He is not the leader of a country, he is the Ruler of a controlling faction.

    I suppose you could call me a cynic, but this behavior is how I imagine a foreign ruling power would administer a country he was charged with overseeing. A ruler that has no affinity for those he governs, and only extracts joy in the accolades and personal accoutrements of office. 0bama is from America, but not of America.

    This is one crisis they are not wasting to lay us low.

  • Common_Cents

    Are there plenty of supplies on land and shallow water to tap or would a more unrestricted energy co still go deep cuz that’s where the oil is?

    • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Vladimir

      Part of the problem is that we don’t know what the potential is of the 85% of the OCS that’s off-limits – it’s never really been explored.

      If you’re asking if we could ever realistically achieve “energy independence” – no.

      We currently make 5 million barrels of oil a day domestically & consume something like 20 million.

      If we had a Manhattan Project and just told the enviros to sit down & shut up, between CA, ANWR, the Rocky Mtns & other places we might be able to bring oil prod up by a few (2-5?) million b/d.

      We could also displace a few million barrels a day of consumption by promoting nat gas as a transportation fuel.

      We’d be a lot less vulnerable if we were importing 50% (say, 8.5 of 17 million b/d) rather than 75%. And a good bit of our imports are from Canada.

      • ladyimpactohio

        http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/

        State by state and what’s happening.

  • wannabeanncoulter

    It’s not just all about Louisiana and Louisiana oil workers. If oil seriously befouls Florida’s coasts, that screws up its tourism industry.* If the oil does get into the loop current, oil could seriously befoul the coastline up to Cape Hatteras and ruin the tourism industries of several other states.

    A six-month moratorium on new deep-well drilling is not an overreaction. Let’s just hope that the time is spent on devising better blowout protectors and spill responses.

    I’m shedding no tears for Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and its shareholders because the company is departing for its other global sites. I’d be more impressed for Anadarko announced that it successfully funded a triple failsafe blowout preventer.

    *And the coasts of Mississippi and Louisiana too.

  • cactusjack

    American energy workers, from the rig to the board room, are all highly skilled/educated people – engineers, PhDs, CPAs, super skilled mechanics, etc., and people willing to work some very long hours, offshore. This is not an entry level industry, when these people leave or are laid off, it’s not that easy to get them or their talent back, in a macro sense. We learned this as a nation in the 1986 oil bust, hundreds of thousands of these talented workers were laid off. The economy did not recover in Louisiana and Texas until about four years later. Most of these folks and their families could not hang on, and drifted elsewhere to other jobs in other parts of the country. They never came back, not in the mini-booms of 5 and 10 years ago. We (our country) lost a generation of skilled workers who in my estimation are no less valuable to our national security, than defense plant workers in wartime. If we had a real boom or national emergency now where we had to make big production fast , we would be strapped.. The families hit by pink slips in Louisiana tomorrow , cannot just walk across the street and work at McDonald’s nor should they. Of course in Obama’s mind, any oil company is just a small club of rich guys who need some punishin’, the general US economy be damned. Sorry to be so simplistic but I’m afraid it’s obvious from his actions.

    • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Vladimir
      • cactusjack

        As with the multitiude of your posts, just expressing something felt strongly about this industry & our country.

    • larueladue

      Was a geologist, and had previously worked in hydrogeology while in college, so I moved into hydrogeology/environmental work. Then that tapered off in the mid-late ’90′s and moved into the IT world (all the geologic and hydrogeologic computer modeling paid off, albeit in an unintended, different way).

      Couldn’t move back into my first career now; been away from it too long (as much as I would like to do that sort of work again). And I know many like me, that moved out of the energy field because the work just wasn’t there anymore. This has the potential to do the same, but this will have been caused by our President; not by market forces or foreign events, but by the carelessness and thoughtlessness of our President… Just thinking about that raises my blood pressure…

  • pragmatic

    I’ve been an active member here for only a few months and was a lurker for a while before that.

    I know it’s been said before by many but I must express my gratitude and awe at your posts, Vlad. Although my great-aunt worked for Shell for over 30 years I didn’t learn as much from her as I have from you in the past year. Your explanations of logistics, the inner workings of the business, and causes and effects of varying aspects are invaluable. If your intelligence, dedication, and outspokenness are indicative of others in the oil business then we can recover and thrive in the future (assuming government gets out of the way).

    Thank you.

  • dennism

    is kind of nauseating.

    • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

      I can make sure you won’t see another one of his posts. It’s very easy in fact.

      Make another comment like this and I’ll take it as a request that I do so.

  • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Vladimir

    …give me a shout before you do that.

    There are, er, extenuating circumstances…

  • wayneepalmer

    Pray for Divine Intervention.