Thursday, September 2, 2010
Oil Rig Exploded in Gulf, Coast Guard Says
An offshore oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico this morning at 9:30 CDT just west of the location of the blast in April that caused a massive oil spill. All 13 crew members have been rescued with only one who was injured. According the the Coast Guard the rig, owned by Mariner Energy, was not currently producing however it is not clear whether or not there is an oil leak. What will this second explosion mean for the oil industry? Will there be any economic backlash even if the blast has not caused a second oil leak?
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4 comments:
Whenever there is a situation involving oil and problem there usually is an increase in oil prices and/or supply. The only silver lining to this accident is that all the workers survived. It seems like the needed measures of safety on oil rigs have not been going check or that they are not sufficient enough for their needed tasks. Government intervention would raise the oil prices as more measures taken would mean that more money would be spent for the protection of both the employees on the rigs as well as the rigs itself. A bigger concern however is the environmental impact it is having in this area. Endangered species could be wiped out in this area, something which governments actually have laws and regulations about.
I think that prior to the BP oil spill, the government underestimated the consequences of an oil rig mishap. It seems as though they saw oil rig malfunctions as more of a problem to the sponsoring company, rather than a problem to the public. However, with the BP tragedy having occurred, and seeing that extent to which such a tragedy effects more than just the parent company, the government will eventually intervene and oversee oil rig protocol. LIke Phil said, it certainly will effect the cost to consumers, but it will be interesting to see the extent of which it will effect them. In my opinion, I think this cost to consumers will be well worth it in the long run if the government can administer a pro-active prevention policy to avoid such events in the future.
The economic backlash of this incident will most likely be higher prices and a shortened supply. Like Phillip said the only good thing that came out of this incident was that nobody was killed and only one person was injured. Besides the economic issues that are likely to happen after this second exploding there is also the environmental issues. This second explosion will cause even more damage to the gulf and its animals than is already present, if it is leaking oil.
It has been several days since this incident occurred without reports of a spill, and no economic or political backlash has materialized. Perhaps this is an isolated event. I don't foresee any major ramifications.
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