Jeff Matthews notes that the rig damage in the Gulf of Mexico is far more extensive than many people believe:
"Rowan Drilling (RDC-NYSE) has its own planes and were thus one of the first on the scene to witness the impact. They say that the rig devastation is quite significant and the pilots reported that in an area where they previously would see about 15 jack-ups there were none visible."
"None visible."
Jeff picked this up from Petrie Parkman, whom he called "The best energy industry research firm I know." Oil research veteran Tom Petrie runs it. The above quote is from their morning research notes regarding Rowan Companies, a large operator of jack-up drilling rigs in
the Gulf of Mexico.
Jeff further observes:
"While Rowan was flying planes over the area where there were no rigs “visible,” the stock market had already decided the impact of Hurricane Rita was not too severe, based largely, I gather, on the fact that Fox and CNN TV reporters in rain gear were able to walk around parking lots in Galveston shortly after the storm passed and could see no visible damage to the infrastructure miles out in the Gulf of Mexico."
Go read the full discussion.
Go read EIA GOMEX daily update – today’s not yet up, but as of yesterday 96.8% of oil shut-in and 77.2% of nat gas shut-in – that’s 1.5Mbbl/d oil and 8.1mmcf/d nat gas – also go over to Oildrum.com for more conversation on the subject