New York: A large number of oil rigs are likely to find their way to new oil fields following a six month ban by US President Barack Obama on deep water drilling in the area. The ban was put in place while an investigation is conducted in to the factors behind a huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico due to an incident at a BP -leased oil rig that ruptured and killed 11 onboard workers.
"Already, three rigs have left or are in the process of leaving the Gulf of Mexico," Chett Chiasson, executive director of the port commission for the town of Port Fourchon, which services 90 percent of deepwater activity in the Gulf, told AFP. "If this moratorium goes for six months, these rig operators and these oil companies will have no choice but to go somewhere else."
The newswire writes that a spokesman for Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, which leased and operated the three rigs, said the company had "notified three of our rig contractors that we were terminating our contract because with a six-month moratorium on exploration and appraisal drilling in the Gulf, there's no work for those rigs."
But he was unable to confirm that the rigs, which belong to three separate companies, were being physically removed from the Gulf of Mexico. There are 33 rigs that will be affected by the moratorium. [10/06/10]
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