Question on drilling in the Gulf. Anyone know how many oil rigs are in the Gulf?

[FSogol]

No guesses or speculation, please. Links if you have them. Thanks.

[brendan120678]

1. Nearly 4,000 according to this...

More info here:
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/06mexico/background/oil/oil.html

[FSogol]

4. Cool, thanks. I wonder if the Minerals Management Service inspected

all of them already. It has been reported that 2 rigs were shut down due to their inspections and 1 was evacuated. The reporting on this issue has been shoddy to say the least.

[Pirate Smile]

2. Sec Salazar said there are 30,000 wells. How that translates to rigs, I'm not sure.

[hatrack]

5. The number of rigs will be far, far fewer - rigs are only on site during drilling or reworking

Most of what's out there are platforms - far smaller structures above existing wells, many of which are already networked into the pipeline systems.

[northernlights]

3. about 4,000 too effing many nt

[Xenotime]

6. No shit. How are all of those allowed to be near the US?

[Nihil]

8. The usual reason: Greed.

Many are owned & operated by Americans.

American refineries receive their output.

American docks are used for transfers.

American politicians take their cut campaign contributions.

It's quite a profitable business (if you are one of the lucky ones
who profits from it rather than being in the 95% who just have to
suffer it) and so it has been going on for decades.

It happens in anyone's waters, not just your own, and no-one really
cares about the downside (despite the Exxon Valdez, Amoco Cadiz,
Torrey Canyon, et al.). "Those damn environmentalists" are just seen
as a pain to "honest business" and a reason that prices go up.

So what's different now? Oh ... it's on the local news is it?

[Statistical]

9. We consume a lot of oil.

Would it make more sense to have them on "foreign waters" and cause pollution there.

The root problem is Americas massive and crippling addiction to oil.
Keep the product close to the consumer. Right?

[Emit]

7. 35,000 wells, over 4,000 platforms according to climate activist Mike Tidwell

who was on the Diane Rehm show recently:
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-05-03/fallout-gulf-mexico-oil-spill

...climate activist Mike Tidwell, author of Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast


Friends,

As a former journalist who has reported extensively from the*drilling fields of the Gulf of Mexico, I can tell you the US public has NO IDEA of the scale and scope of the drilling operation there. There are at least 35,000 wells and over 4,000 platforms. At night, the hazard lights on the rigs are so huge and*numerous, they look like the reflections of the stars in the sky above. If you were to stack all the Gulf offshore rigs end to end they would form a 30-story tall structure as*wide as an aircraft carrier*from DC to Philadelphia. On nautical charts, the platforms truly appear like a galaxy of stars. They literally form constellations that boat captains us to navigate by: "I'm passing the bunny ears right now and headed toward the barbecue pit."

The point is this: at this volume of operation, human error guarantees that BP-type spills will happen again. A bit of luck has kept the Gulf free of big spills in*the recent past, but it will happen again, guaranteed. No new regulations will tame this beast.

The ONLY thing that will tame it is a reduction in the use of oil itself. If we don't like massive, economy-wrecking spills, we must begin to transition rapidly to an economy where there's just a lot less oil TO spill.

I strongly believe we need to educate the pubic about the scale of the drilling operation in the Gulf so people will start to understand the odds and the real "cost of doing business."

BTW, I devote a whole chapter to the Gulf oil patch insanity in my book Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast (Vintage, 2003). I'll also be on NPR's Diane Rehm show tomorrow, Monday, from 10-11 am EST to discuss the above. Tune it at WAMU 88.5 - American University Radio

Mike Tidwell

Director, CCAN

--
Mike Tidwell
Director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network
[e-mail]
cell: 240-460-5838
www.ChesapeakeClimate.org
http://www.chesapeakeclimate.org/blog/?p=3141&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CcanBlog+%28CCAN+Blog%29
http://www.waccobb.net/forums/waccoreader/66680-colossal-scope-drilling-operation-gulf-mexico.html