Another deep-water drilling rig to leave the Gulf of Mexico

Another deep-water drilling rig is leaving the Gulf of Mexico amid a continued slowdown in activity in the U.S. offshore basin following the BP oil spill last year.

Noble Corp. said its rig, called the Noble Paul Ramano, has taken a 180-day contract with Gujarat State Petroleum Corp. Ltd. to drill six wells offshore Egypt, with an option for four additional wells.

The semi-submersible rig, which has been idle in the Gulf of Mexico since June 2010, is expected to start work in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea in October, the Zug, Switzerland-based drilling contractor said in a statement.

Many deep-water projects in the Gulf of Mexico remain stalled in the wake of BP’s deadly Macondo well blowout in April 2010. After the accident, which killed 11 workers and unleashed the nation’s worst oil spill, the Interior Department banned most deep-water drilling activity, idling 33 rigs doing such work. Though the moratorium was lifted in October, regulators have been slow to approve new drilling permits as they factor in new offshore safety and environmental rules.

In response, some oil companies have relocated contracted rigs to other offshore areas including Brazil and Nigeria and offshore drilling contractors have negotiated new contracts elsewhere.

The exit of the Noble Paul Ramano marks the eighth deep-water rig to leave the Gulf since the BP spill.

Noble also announced that its Noble Max Smith deep-water rig had received a five-month extension to keep working for Mexico’s Pemex in the Mexican portion of the Gulf.

Also, the company’s Noble Driller semisubmersible rig started work Aug 1. in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico under a contract with Shell Oil.

The rise of Hitler and his international clones, past and present, bear a marked and frightening similarity to what’s happening here.

I am convinced that there were and still are powerful forces and ideas at work behind the scenes. Call them the conspiracy, the oligarchs, the super-wealthy elites, human nature, whatever that pass the baton from generation to generation. Motivated by impulses most of us “simple folk” cannot fully understand, while they occasionally fail, they often successfully engineer circumstances that can be predicted to preserve and/or extend their wealth and power (mainly power, as from power flow the riches).

I said that to say this: At Versailles after WWI, some of the cooler heads there warned that the highly punitive provisions of that treaty would cause the German people to become susceptible to the rise of a tyrant promising to restore their national pride and raise their devastated nation to power once again. They got him in the early 30s and the rest is history. That and Obozo’s hatred for Israel makes it doubly difficult to understand why nearly 80% of American Jews voted for this clown. Guess they love their idiotic “progressivism” more than their fellow Jews.

If you don’t yet see a parallel between driving Germany to her knees at Versailles and the intentionally destructive things being done to America — largely sans any meaningful protests or outcry — by the would-be despot in the White House, go back to that NYT crossword or the sports page and order another Starbucks ‘cause it’s gonna be alright — NOT!!!

My fear is that this time it won’t take the 14 years it took Hitler — Versailles ‘(1919) to his appointment as Chancellor (1933) — as the guy selected for the position is ALREADY IN PLACE!

Be afraid. Be VERY AFRAID ESPECIALLY IF WE DON’T OUST HIM AND HIS GANG OF ENABLERS IN 2012.

>>> Another deep-water drilling rig to leave the Gulf of Mexico

They may as well. The rigs in place are only working at about half capacity.

The story oversimplifies the issue. One company moves a rig out. Another moves a new rig in place. Over time the total numbers pretty much hold steady.

U.S. Gulf of Mexico

Today Last Week Month Ago Year Ago
Total Rigs in Drilling Fleet 121 121 122 121
Rigs Under Contract 64 65 64 66
Rigs Without Contract 57 56 58 55
Fleet Utilization Rate 52.9% 53.7% 52.5% 54.5%

http://www.ods-petrodata.com/odsp/weekly_rig_count.php

Now I see the difference in numbers.

Yours counts rigs under contract, regardless if they are drilling or not.

The Chart I showed only counts the ones actually drilling.

When the feds stopped the permits, the rigs were still under contract even though drilling was shut down. Only after the contract expired or was broken did yours change.

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