After BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in late April, oil gushed uncontrollably from the blown well for most of the summer. Energy lawyers’ deepwater deal work, on the other hand, was completely plugged.
The six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, issued in late May and still in place at press time, banned new exploratory deepwater drilling and interrupted oil companies’ plans for new project development on the outer continental shelf. Energy lawyers saw their deepwater deals screech to a halt. “It was like throwing tire spikes on a busy freeway,” says Larry Nettles, Vinson & Elkins’s energy industry group leader.
