Chevron’s commitment good news for the deepwater drillers…and Pressure Technologies
Chevron Corp’s announcement that it will invest $7.5 billion to develop two of the Gulf of Mexico's largest unexploited oil fields is the first big commitment from an oil major since the drilling moratorium was lifted.
The newly sanctioned projects—Jack and St. Malo—represent two of the biggest finds of the last decade in the U.S. Gulf, potentially holding 500 million barrels of recoverable oil and gas. Production is expected to begin in 2014, in 7,000 feet of water roughly 280 miles south of New Orleans. Brokerage Natixis Bleichroeder recently upgraded the largest of the deep water drillers Transocean (NYSE: RIG) to Buy. The Natixis analyst commented that, “In our previous update for Transocean, we had assumed lower dayrates for deepwater rigs drilling in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico based on uncertainties surrounding the Macondo incident. With…