Twenty deepwater drilling rigs will leave the Gulf of Mexico if U.S. regulators do not accelerate permitting, investment bank FBR Capital Markets says in a new report. Twelve deepwater rigs have left the Gulf of Mexico since June 2010. Somewhat surprisingly, the analysis blames not politics but rather the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement’s slow response to implement higher safety standards enacted after the BP oil spill in 2010. “Rather than being political, the GOM permitting drag is more reflective of the increased work required to issue each permit and the limited bureaucratic resources available,” the report reads. “As a result, we continue to expect continued slow recovery of the deepwater permitting rate.” Read more about the report here.
Report: Gulf of Mexico rig count ‘unsustainable’ without quicker permits
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