“On Pause“: Offshore Oil Industry Faces Its Biggest Setback In Years

“On Pause“: Offshore Oil Industry Faces Its Biggest Setback In Years

The world's offshore oil industry, responsible for 30% of all the world's oil production, faces a reckoning.. In the Gulf of Mexico, home to the vast majority of US offshore oil production, pullbacks, pauses and cancellations have been the word of the day.. The real impact of the current downturn will show up not in the number of projects completed this year and next, but in the number of new projects that are greenlighted over that same period.. What we saw in the previous downturn in 2015 was that not many projects were sanctioned [that year], and there was more sanctioning only in 2017-18.". As if offshore oil companies didn't have enough problems, they are also staring down a tidal wave of debt repayments.. After the price collapse of 2014-15, many oil firms refinanced existing debt in hopes of paying it back once prices recovered.. But many independent companies that operate in the shallow waters off Louisiana and Texas will also be hit hard.. In March, smaller and independent companies most vulnerable to bankruptcy began campaigning for financial relief.. But commodities specialist publication Argus Media, citing industry officials, reported late last week that the White House is reviewing