Less than a year ago, struggling states and coastal towns saw crude oil exploration off the Gulf Coast and Atlantic seaboard as an economic savior. Yet governmental reactions to the BP oil spill—most recently, the Obama administration’s decision this week not to open up some of that area to new drilling—leave residents wondering if the industry will ever thrive again in U.S. waters. Some fear an exodus of oil rigs in search of friendlier waters overseas. And with each passing day, folks who rely on deepwater drilling say the damage grows, rippling from blue-collar Main Street to beachside drives. They warn it will only get worse.
“Deepwater was the future,” says Lori Davis, owner of Rig-Chem, a Houma business that sells chemicals to oil companies. If there’s less new exploratory drilling, everyone from industry suppliers to medical professionals who treat oilfield workers will see a decline in business. Davis has already cut a consultant, reduced a profit-sharing plan for workers and left a recent job vacancy unfilled.
So far, rigs aren’t leaving the gulf en masse, but industry officials fear they will. According to ODS-Petrodata, which follows the market for oil and gas producers, there were 36 floating rigs in the gulf on Thursday, one more than were there the day before the explosion aboard the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon April 20. However, the firm says that only six of the rigs were conducting operations Thursday: mostly maintenance work, not exploratory drilling.
