About a month ago, I asked when it would be "game on" in the Gulf. I was looking ahead to life after the deepwater drilling moratorium, which the government lifted on Oct. 12. Rig operators like Noble
As of this morning, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE) has approved zero new wells, zero bypass wells, and one sidetrack well in the deepwater, since the lifting of the moratorium. Sidetracking involves either drilling around an obstruction in the well, or drilling laterally from an unobstructed wellbore to tap another productive zone nearby.
The pace appears glacial. Let's take a little stroll through recent company conference calls to see what various operators are saying about their permitting prospects.
Chevron
Noble Energy's
Turning to Anadarko Petroleum
So, there you go, Fools -- uncertainty reigns for the time being. For a company like Chevron, with projects spanning the globe, permitting delays are more of an annoyance than anything. For a company like Cobalt International Energy
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