The rental rate on those rigs run around $500,000 per day. Moratorium on/ moratorium off/ now it is going to get tied up in the courts. The lawyers could keep this tied up for years. Our tax dollars pay the government lawyers who are gumming up the business that puts us out of work.
The rig owners/renters aren’t going to sit around until this gets settled. The rigs are going to be moved to west Africa, South China Sea and to Brazil. Brazil is the big hotspot for exploration now. And obama gave Brazil something like 2 Billion of our tax money to assist in their exploration. The cost to move a rig is enormous and once the rigs are moved, they won’t be moved back unless there is an equally enormous incentive. Given who is squatting in the White house now, not happening.
This is going to have serious negative effects on us for a very long time.
Yep. Once Obama, and BiteMe is removed for willful misfeasance, then it will be up to the new administration to coax back the rigs. A powrful lever to restoring US production overall, and returning rigs, would be tariffing foreign oil imports. Combined with an end to U.S. corporate income taxes, that should do the trick.