Katrina, Rita Cost to Oil Industry Rises to Record $17 Billion

[Barrett808]

Katrina, Rita Cost to Oil Industry Rises to Record $17 Billion
By Jim Kennett

Transocean Inc.'s Deepwater Nautilus rig should have spent the last two months drilling for oil and natural gas in 8,000 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico, earning $220,000 a day. Instead, the vessel sat idle in a Texas shipyard.

Workers last week finished the latest round of repairs on the Nautilus after Hurricane Katrina tore the 50,277-ton rig from its moorings and Hurricane Rita grounded it. They also added mooring points to lessen the chance of a repeat. The 2005 storms have cost Houston-based Transocean, the largest offshore driller, about $135 million for repairs, downtime and equipment upgrades.

At least Transocean is done counting. A year after Katrina, the biggest natural disaster ever in the energy business, companies are still tallying the damage done by the hurricanes. The price tag so far, according to two of the world's biggest insurance brokers and a power-industry group, is $17 billion.

``Hurricanes come every year, and we are accustomed to dealing with them,'' said Roger Plank, chief financial officer with Houston oil and gas producer Apache Corp., which had as much as $700 million in damage from 2005's storms. ``But what, as an industry, we are not accustomed to are 100-year storms, and we had two of them last year.''

(more)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aZjgqvrTSgrs&refer=exclusive

[OwnedByFerrets]

1. Wait while I get out my violin. n/t

[Monkeyman]

2. Poor babies record profits off the rest of us

[kysrsoze]

3. ...and were passed directly to customers, thereby continuing record profit

whatever

[Kittycat]

4. ...according to two of the world's biggest insurance brokers

i.e. most of that tab was probably picked up by the insurance companies, not the oil companies.

[hughee99]

5. This will only be a temporary hit for the insurance companies...

They will get it back through higher premiums and the oil companies will pass that cost on to the customers.

[BadGimp]

6. The good news for them is WE are paying for it...

eom

[warrens]

7. Or, two weeks' worth of net profits

Sheesh

[OKthatsIT]

8. They're finding another accuse to raise our rates, again!

Who did the audit? The foxes?