Deepwater drilling

Deepwater drilling, or Deep well drilling, is the process of oil and gas exploration. There are approximately 3400 deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico with depths greater than 150 meters.

It has not been technologically and economically feasible for many years, but with rising oil prices, more companies are investing in this area. Major companies working in this sector include Halliburton, Diamond Offshore, TransOcean, Geoservices, and Schlumberger. The deepwater gas and oil market is back on the rise after the disaster of 2010, and total expenditure of around $35 billion per year and a total global Capex of $167 billion in the past four years.

Recent industry analysis by Visiongain has estimated that the total expenditure in the global deepwater infrastructure market would reach $145bn in 2011.

In the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010, a large explosion occurred killing workers and spilling oil into the Gulf of Mexico while a BP oil rig was drilling in deep waters.

There are basically two kinds of mobile deepwater drilling rigs: semi-submersible drilling rigs and drillships. Drilling can also be performed from a fixed-position installation such as a floating spar platform (or tension-leg platform).

On 20 April 2010, a BP deepwater oil rig (Deepwater Horizon) exploded, killing 11 and releasing 750 000 cubic meters (200 million gallons) of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. With those numbers, many scientists consider this disaster to be one of the worst environmental disasters in the history of the US.

A large number of animal deaths have resulted from the release of the oil. A Center study estimates that over 82,000 birds; about 6,000 sea turtles; and nearly 26,000 marine mammals were killed from either the initial explosion or the oil spill.

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