Deep-water quest continues

The energy industry's infatuation with the deep-water Gulf of Mexico has been under way for almost a decade. Although there are signs of strain in the relationship at present, industry experts expect passions to re-ignite over the next few years, Anne Feltus reports from Houston's Offshore Technology Conference

THE LOVE affair between oil and gas companies and the deep-water Gulf of Mexico (GoM) dates to the mid-1990s, when rising energy prices and growing global demand, combined with technological advances and better-than-expected production from deep-water discoveries, enticed explorers back to a region they believed had run dry. This scenario echoes the industry's obsession with the GoM's shallower waters, which made the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) the most intensely developed offshore province in the world. A recent report by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) says deep-water oil production 'is in the midst of a dramatic increase, similar to that seen in the shallow-water Gulf of Mexico du