Earth Equity News

Drill Ship Shortage Constrains Offshore Exploration. By Jad Mouawad and Martin Fackler, NYTimes, June 19, 2008. "[President] Bush called on Congress Wednesday to end a longstanding federal ban on offshore drilling and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration, arguing that the steps were needed to lower gasoline prices and bolster national security. But even as oil trades at more than $135 a barrel -- up from $68 a year ago -- the world's existing drill-ships are booked solid for the next five years. Some oil companies have been forced to postpone exploration while waiting for a drilling rig... Demand is so high that shipbuilders, the biggest of whom are in Asia, have raised prices since last year by as much as $100 million a vessel to about half a billion dollars. 'The crunch on rigs is everywhere,' said Alberto Guimaraes... [of] Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company that has discovered some of the most promising offshore oil but has been unable to get at it. 'Almost 100 percent of the oil companies are constrained in their investment program because there is no rig available,' he said."