Oil Companies, Rig Owners Clash Over Idle Time Costs, WSJ Says
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Oil rig owners and the companies who lease them are fighting over who should pay for the losses incurred during the enforced idleness triggered by U.S. President Barack Obama’s moratorium on deepwater drilling, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing industry officials.
Although a federal judge overturned Obama’s ban, brought in after the April 20 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, major oil companies are unlikely to resume operations until appeals to higher courts are completed; some rigs are costing as much as $600,000 a day while not in use, the newspaper said.