A small portion? There will be a million jobs lost, along with a trillion dollars of investments in this country in the next five years, if the oil and gas industry is run out of the GOM.
The tragedy, is that people actually think we are ready to stop using petroleum based fuels within the next few years. That's rediculous. However, politicians are going to push that agenda, no matter how much damage it does to the economy and the job market.
I'm not over exaggerating the fallout from the moratorium.
Let me put it another way...
You're over
exaggerating the situation as it is presently in the GOM or what myself and others are saying who are in favor of maintaining the 6-month moriturium on deep water drilling.
Nobody is saying we should stop ALL oil drilling in the GOM. That would be foolish! What we ARE saying is stop deep water drilling long enough to get a handle on our regulatory and engineering situations because clearly BOTH are so far out of wack it's ridiculous!!
As we're seeing and as what has been reported via Congressional hearings, no major U.S. oil company is prepared to handle a major oil spill of this magnitude no matter where it occurs in deep waters off our nation's coasts. Moreover, our government bureacrats who were suppose to be looking out for our national and environmental interests in this matter dropped the ball by turning a blind eye on enforcing regulations. So, IMO, it just makes sense to take a pause, re-evaluate, and then come back when all the "T's" are crossed and the "I's" are dotted.
As to the reality of the number of oil rig jobs that are being affected by the current oil spill...
According to the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association:
Each drilling platform averages 90 to 140 employees at any one time (2 shifts per day), and 180 to 280 for 2 2-week shifts. Each E&P job supports 4 other positions. Therefore, 800 to 1400 jobs per idle rig platform are at risk. Wages for those jobs average $1,804/weekly; potential for lost wages is huge, over $5 to $10 million for 1 month – per platform. Wages lost could be over $165 to $330 million/month for all 33 platforms.
That's the reality we're facing today*. Imagine how much worse things would be if two oil rigs suffered the same fate as Deepwater Horizon? How about three? Four? And not one of them is prepared to handle such a tragedy according to Congressional testimony by at least one major oil U.S. company executive,
ExxonMobile CEO Rex Tillerson. Not one!
The only good news that will come out of this tragic event is the efforts made by BP will go towards educating the (U.S.) oil industry on how to handle oil spills in deep water. I just hope neither the oil industry nor the federal goverment returns to being complacent on the matter. Otherwise, history WILL repeat itself. Remember: This isn't the first major oil spill to happen in the GOM. It just took 30 years before the next one occurred.
*
Note: The figures NolaMan quoted for jobs lost from idle oil drilling rigs is over blown. The 2-week shift numbers still equate to 240 jobs because no matter how long the rigs operate they still employ the same people over an extended period of time. That's just like people being critical of the Obama Administration for tabulating "temporary" workers or those who were "rehired" as "new employees" when, in fact, they are the same people...they just got re-hired.
2 shifts employ 280 oil rig workers (140 per shift) X 33 idle deepwater oil rigs = 9240 total employees
Thousands of jobs lost, yes. But even that figure is based on ALL 33 deepwater oil rigs being active! I doubt that many oil rigs are sitting idle in the GOM right now from this moritorium, but those who think otherwise you're free to state your case.