We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them

Albert Einstein

What seems clear is that the federal government has been pressed by what happened on the Deepwater Horizon into an otherwise sweeping confirmation that all Gulf deepwater drilling activities put us in a universal threat of irreparable harm.

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman

I do not believe that the deep-water offshore rigs that were mobilised to international locations during the suspension will return to the gulf for some time, if at all,

Dave Lesar, Halliburton

The departure of deep-water drilling rigs to other countries because of the Obama administration’s moratorium is unfortunate but not reason enough to allow drilling to restart.

David Axelrod, White House Advisor

While 5 oil rigs have left the gulf, more are expected to leave for Brazil and Africa.  What does this cost?

Last week, Diamond Offshore announced that it was sending the Ocean Endeavor rig from the Gulf of Mexico to Egypt. This week it announced that it was pulling the Ocean Confidence out of the Gulf of Mexico and sending it to the Congo.

Bloomberg reports that the Congo project is expected to generate $234 million in total revenue—revenue and jobs that should have been created in the Untied States.

Besides the production of oil, other impacts include:

• 90 to 140 employees at any one time (2 shifts per day), and 180 to 280 for 2 2-week shifts
• each job supports 4 other positions

Therefore, 800 to 1400 jobs per idle rig platform.

• Average wage: $1,804/weekly ($5 to $10 million per month, per platform)

Plus the impact to people who supply the rigs:

• Supply boats - 2 boats per rig with day rates of $15,000/day per boat ($30,000/day)
• Other supplies and support services (welders, divers, caterers, transportation, etc.)

Source

Meanwhile in China…

China is rushing to keep an oil spill from reaching international waters, while an environmental group tried to assess if the country’s largest reported spill was worse than has been disclosed.

Crude oil started pouring into the Yellow Sea off a busy north-eastern port after a pipeline exploded late last week, sparking a massive 15-hour fire. The government says the slick has spread across a 70-square-mile stretch of ocean.

The pipeline is owned by China National Petroleum Corp, Asia’s biggest oil and gas producer by volume.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38337393/ns/world_news-world_environment

In ten years, we can reduce our dependence so that we no longer have to import oil from the Middle East or Venezuela. Number one, we need to expand domestic production and that means telling the oil companies the 68 million acres that they currently have leased that they’re not drilling, use them or lose them.

Barack Obama