Page 34: of Marine News Magazine (July 2011)

34MNJuly 2011Life is looking up for the Gulf of Mexico's marine industry following new oil discoveries and a flurry of rig permits this spring. Louisiana's Port Fourchon, the leading oil-and-gas ter- minal in the Gulf, has been busy in recent months. Deepwater rigs are getting back to work but at least seven of them have left the region for other nations. Shallow water permitting remains sluggish in the Gulf. Oil-and-gas operators and indus- tries serving them want the Obama Administration to accelerate its rig permitting process. Gulf maritime companies are just beginning to recover from the federal drilling moratorium that ended lastOctober, and no one's planning a party or hiring a brass band to cele- brate recent progress. As for new finds off Louisiana's coast, Boysie Bollinger, chairman and chief executive officer of Bollinger Shipyards, Inc. in Lockport, La., said these discoveries show that if they let us drill, we can do it safely and find oil and gas.? But, he added it will take much more activity than a successful well to turn this industry around.? One major concern, he said, is that more and more drilling equipment is leaving the Gulf for other areas of the world.?In mid-June, Transocean announced that two of its floatingrigs will exit the Gulf for Africa's coast, and they'll follow two other company rigs that departed. Diamond Offshore in June said its Ocean Monarch rig would leave the Gulf to work for BP in Vietnam this fall.A Tidewater rig that said goodbye to the Gulf during the moratorium has returned, however, and two others that migrated overseas might come back later this year, according to their owners. Oil Finds Help Gulf Industry butRig Worries Persist By Susan Buchanan ExxonMobil Exploration Company usedthe Maersk Developer semi-sub-mersible drilling rig, shown here in aphoto from Maersk, to drillExxonMobil's first post-moratoriumdeepwater exploration well in the Gulfof Mexico.(Photo: Business Wire)