Do you believe that this makes good logic knowing how long it will take Govt. to check all drilling rigs?
Transocean Drops After Axelrod Comments on Drilling (Update1)
April 30, 2010, 12:55 PM EDT
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April 30 (Bloomberg) — Transocean Ltd., Halliburton Co. and McMoRan Exploration Co. dropped in New York trading after President Barack Obama’s chief strategist said no new offshore drilling will be allowed until this month’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill is investigated.
Transocean, whose Deepwater Horizon rig caught fire and sank last week, tumbled .68, or 6 percent, to .83 at 12:42 p.m. on the New York Stock Exchange. Halliburton, the second- largest oilfield contractor and a service provider on the Deepwater Horizon, declined 84 cents, or 2.7 percent, to .76. McMoRan, a New Orleans-based oil and gas producer that’s drilling in the Gulf, dropped 5 percent to .41.
About 5,000 barrels of oil are leaking
I’m not speaking of NEW DRILLING. This is the investigation pending on the present catastrophe….We know that any rig has many risks at any given time, so should we be inspecting ALL Rigs, or just investigate the one that no longer exists? How long do you think this will take and at who’s expense? Can you envision gas prices rising to 5.00 per gallon at this rate?
July 9th, 2010 at 3:20 am
Rigs are always under rules of inspection from internal as well as external sources. Coast Guard inspection is commonplace. EPA and OSHA both inspect routinely and all hydrocarbon installations threatening lives of those on board as well as representing threats to marine and shoreline well-being are required to meet stringent codes or be restrained from operating. In addition, all personnel attached to a rig must be trained and tested regularly to prove they are seaworthy and capable of adequately responding to hazards as just happened aboard the rig.
This event will not affect the price of gas for it cannot. There is no dependency link between one rig and the price we pay at the pump. There is a huge amount of gas in storage, more than sufficient to cover this interruption. Too, we get shipments of formulated gas from multiple sources in and out of this country.
Drops in share valuations due to this arise due to lack of understanding and not corporate value. The fact is that all companies involved are heavily insured for such incidents and will not be impaired. As a matter of fact, when I saw BPT (an oil and gas trust representing Alaskan North Slope oil interests and having nothing to do with BP) drop $4 yesterday morning, I immediately bought units in the trust, realizing they were being confused with BP itself. They are not interconnected. By late afternoon I sold them and pocked $3 per unit. I got lucky because I figured people didn’t understand.
In conclusion, all rigs are inspected and required to meet standards for safe operation. What happened that caused this situation had nothing to do with standard operation. It was apparently due to engineering & labor error pertaining to cementing procedure.
The decision to investigate should always be part of serious situations such as this one. It is nothing more than a political gesture that we’re now seeing. It cannot impact on offshore drilling as there is no new offshore drilling on the table under consideration. That whole story was designed to look as though the Administration was moving towards it. People overlooked the fact that buried in the bill is the stipulation that Congress must approve of any granting of rights to drill in any area. I don’t believe it was ever meant to open our coastlines to drilling.
Lastly, conducting seismic, actual drilling and the erection of a platform will take upwards of fifteen years to realize. This whole story isn’t real, it’s a political ploy.
Len
July 9th, 2010 at 3:20 am
The safety checks have been ongoing with most companies in this timeframe.
Crews also work toward safety.
Procedures of safety mean delays.
Here is an example > A curring fluid with the combinations of Hazmat oir dangerous good s materials are combined to ease the bit stress and keep fires from gas discoveries from occurring. These are put in a trailers the chemicals are turned in to liquid and pumped in a drill hole. The goles can run to depths of 36000 feet or 6 miles deep. This delays the process as some , even within the industry feel water will get down in the hole and pevent a fire.
Stories of Great Lake shallow drill may turn into other prjects. Simply gas mahe been hit at 2 thousand feet or thereabouts. Water does not prevent fires nor gas explosions if large pockets are hit. Seismology reports should indicate depth of gas and zones of oil being below the gas. These can be other gas forms mixed yet combustable. Some feel ocean drilling is safer in that regard.
The cutting fluids are used for a number of factors to prevent stuff like fires or explosions from occurring.
Certainly China oil has a far more professional approach to drilling as they are one of the larger producers in the world.
July 9th, 2010 at 3:20 am
I’m not sure I understand your question but if your ask does it make sense for TO shares to drop based on this incident? Yes. Put aside the possibility TO will be liable because either; they authorized improper procedure (such as short cutting plug test procedure), personnel performed an improper function (such as opening the annular without checking annulus pressure) or failed check or authorized EDS functions; even with none of that there is a risk a stand down would cause a loss of revenue that would jeopardize their debt repayment for all this new equipment. Additionally if it appears corporate driven procedures allowed this multitude of failures to occur without effective due diligence it may cause an unbiased review of all the rigs. The loss of revenue would be devastating. Yes I think it’s justified especially if any contracts have to be renegotiated on today’s day-rate as opposed to that when oil was over $100/bbl.
July 9th, 2010 at 3:20 am
Come on Cajunboy –
Your "God" (if "It" exists) freely chooses to allow such catastrophes on a regular basis. Or is your "God" somehow being forced to choose to allow something to happen that "It" doesn’t want to happen?
Stop trying to blame humanity for choices that we don’t logically have…