Page 37: of Marine News Magazine (July 2011)

www.marinelink.com working inland, and it costs money to service ocean rigs.? Active wells are good for the economy in and around Houma in south-central Louisiana, Scott said. They provide work for the area's many large and small marine fabricators,? he noted. You've got companies producing platforms, and others servicing platforms for good money.? Echoing Bollinger's concerns, however, Scott noted unfortunately, seven drill ships have left the Gulf of Mexico for other countries in the last year.? Don Briggs recalled how serious conditions were on the coast last fall. He said the federal drilling moratorium resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs and caused growth within exploration, production, and drilling companies to stagnate.? And more than a year after the spill, uncertainty plagues those businesses in the Gulf generating indirect jobs that support oil-and-gas develop- ments, he said.Meanwhile, Earthjustice, the former Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, is concerned about new exploration near the site of BP's April 2010 well explosion. Earthjustice sued BOEMRE on June 9 of this year in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta for approving Shell Oil Co.'s request for a deepwater exploration plan near BP's 2010 well accident. The group's suit on behalf of the Gulf Restoration Foundation, the Florida Wildlife Federation and the Sierra Club charges that the risks inherent in Shell's drilling in the area are high. A similar petition was filed by other groups in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. In other matters, the U.S. will release 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) ? which holds record inventories in salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana ? to make up for lost Libyan supplies and meet domestic, summer-driving demand, the Obama Administration said in late June. In addition, European and Asian countries together plan to relinquish 30 mil- lion barrels from their reserves. The last time the SPR released inventories was after Hurricane Katrina in late 2005. Louisiana Senators Mary Landrieu (Democrat) and David Vitter (Republican) criticized the move, say- ing the U.S. should drill to provide needed oil. Briggs reflected the views of many Gulf oil- and marine-industry members, saying the federal govern- ments gradual permitting of wells, along with recent dis- coveries, represent huge advancements in the industrys struggle to get back to work in the region. But it's imper- ative that the issuance of permits be ramped up to ensure a sense of market certainty that once existed in our nations most prolific oil and natural gas field.?