Oil Rig Shortage Slows Chevron Bid to Tap GOM Fields

(Bloomberg) — Bill Thornburg, a senior drill-site manager for Chevron Corp., opens a steel door on a floating oil rig off the Louisiana coast and stops dead in his tracks.

Red plastic tape warns that crews are hauling pipe and wrenches the size of baseball bats across a deck slick with sea spray. If it were up to Thornburg, there’d be a dozen more $1- million-a-day rigs plying the Gulf of Mexico, full of roughnecks so busy their bosses would need to stay out of the way.

He’ll have to wait. A global shortage of deep-sea drilling rigs is costing Chevron precious time as it taps the Gulf, and the equipment deficit may keep oil prices high. A prime example is the $3 billion field dubbed Jack. Chevron and partner Devon Energy Corp. announced the deepest-ever well test there on Sept. 5. Politicians backing energy independence exulted. Investors sent Devon shares up 12 percent and Chevron’s up 2.3 percent.

They didn’t know the drilling rig Cajun Express had already plugged the Jack well and moved to another urgent job. Drilling at Jack won’t resume until at least July, Thornburg says.

Bloomberg