What oil companies are drilling in the Gulf of Mexico?
Michael Gray
Updated on February 19, 2026
OCS Companies
| Amerada Hess Corporation |
|---|
| ATP Oil & Gas Corporation |
| Aviara Energy Corporation |
| Barrett Resources Corporation |
| Bellwether Exploration Company |
How many offshore drilling rigs are there in the Gulf of Mexico?
As of April 2019, there are approximately 1,862 platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.
What companies were involved in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill?
FACTBOX-Companies involved in the U.S. Gulf rig accident
- Transocean Ltd RIGN. SRIG.
- BP Plc BP. LBP.
- Anadarko Petroleum Corp APC.
- Cameron International Corp CAM.
- Halliburton Co HAL.N – The oilfield services company, which has headquarters in Dubai and Houston, provided a number of services on the Deepwater Horizon.
How many deepwater oil rigs are there?
Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Deepwater drilling, or Deep well drilling, is the process of creating holes in the Earth’s crust using a drilling rig for oil extraction under the deep sea. There are approximately 3400 deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico with depths greater than 150 meters.
What is the largest oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico?
Perdido. Operated by Shell in the Gulf of Mexico, Perdido (see image above) is the world’s deepest oil rig at 2.450 metres. It is a floating spar platform – meaning it stands on a long, weighted column for stability.
How much oil is left in the Gulf of Mexico?
Reserves are estimated to be 3.34 billion barrels of oil and 8.2 trillion cubic feet of gas. These reserves are recoverable from 620 active fields.
How many oil rigs are in the Gulf of Mexico 2021?
Offshore rig count in the Gulf of Mexico by contract type 2021. The total supply of offshore oil and gas rigs in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico was 56 in the week of July 15, 2021. The utilization rate was 77.4 percent, with 24 marketed and contracted offshore rigs recorded that same month.
How far out are the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico?
They start at the state waterline (nine nautical miles out) and go all the way to the edge of the continental shelf, 100 miles offshore.
Is the Deepwater Horizon still leaking oil?
After several failed efforts to contain the flow, the well was declared sealed on 19 September 2010. Reports in early 2012 indicated that the well site was still leaking. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is regarded as one of the largest environmental disasters in American history.
What’s the worst oil spill in history?
Deepwater Horizon
On April 20, 2010, the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, operating in the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded and sank resulting in the death of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon and the largest spill of oil in the history of marine oil drilling operations.
Is oil still leaking in the Gulf of Mexico?
Now, studies show that more than half of the oil produced in the Gulf is coming from wells even deeper than that. One oil well off the southeastern coast of Louisiana, owned by Taylor Energy, has been leaking since 2004, spilling between 300 and 700 barrels per day.
How much oil does the Gulf of Mexico produce?
Oil production from US federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico reached an all-time annual high of 1.65 million barrels per day in 2017. Oil production is expected to continue the upward trend in 2018 and 2019, based on ten new oil fields which are planned to start production in those years.
What happened in the Gulf of Mexico 2020?
The 2020 Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone, or Dead Zone, an area of low oxygen that can kill fish and marine life near the bottom of the sea, measures 2,116 square miles. This is hypoxia – when oxygen in the water is so low it can no longer sustain marine life in bottom or near bottom waters – literally a dead zone.
What happened to Jimmy Harrell?
A supervisor on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 has died. Harrell, who worked for rig owner Transocean, died Monday, according to Wolf Funeral Home in Morton, Mississippi. He had battled cancer for a year.
How much did the survivors of Deepwater Horizon get?
Under the final consent decree, BP will pay the trustees up to $8.8 billion, the largest recovery of damages ever for injuries to natural resources, to restore the Gulf. The settlement includes: $1 billion already allocated during early restoration which began in 2011.
