Small oil drillers say new rules threaten wildcatters’ survival
BOARD THE ST-204B PLATFORM, GULF OF MEXICO — This oil-and-gas platform once bustled with activity. More than a dozen workers toiled aboard it round-the-clock to corral the 12,000 barrels of high-grade crude gushing up each day from reservoirs below.
* King Pleasant, front, and Derek Davis during their daily inspection of oil platform ST 204, in the Gulf of Mexico.
By Tim J. Mueller, for USA TODAY
King Pleasant, front, and Derek Davis during their daily inspection of oil platform ST 204, in the Gulf of Mexico.
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By Tim J. Mueller, for USA TODAY
King Pleasant, front, and Derek Davis during their daily inspection of oil platform ST 204, in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Today, the platform, 43 miles off Louisiana’s coast, is eerily quiet. Six workers periodically check on pumps and diesel engines. Only six to seven barrels trickle in a day.
The reservoir is nearly empty, and without new federal permits to poke new holes in the surrounding area, the platform is rendered nearly dormant, say officials at Pisces Energy, the platform’s owners.
“We’re just trying to maintain until we get the permits and get the drill back out here,” says Sammy Breaux, the platform’s lead operator. “We’re day by day.”
Tightening of regulations for offshore drilling following last year’s BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has lengthened the permitting process and brought tighter scrutiny to offshore drilling. But the new process is strangling small independent companies such as Pisces, which need to continually pump to survive, analysts and industry leaders say.
More than just squeezing profits, the increased federal scrutiny threatens the culture of wildcatters — independent oil companies that seek crude and natural gas in areas where typically no one else is looking. Wildcatters have delivered crude to U.S. consumers for more than a century, says Diana Davids Hinton, a history professor at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin who has written books on wildcatters.
“It puts things in a very gloomy perspective for wildcatters,” she says.
