While ten letters in all, “moratorium” might as well be the foulest four-letter word in the Gulf of Mexico oil patch right now. On May 27, the Obama Administration ordered a halt to drilling in water depths more than 500 feet, effectively cancelling 33 drilling projects and reversing a tide of industry optimism in the region. Bill Foret, president of Golden Meadow, La.-based Abdon Callais Offshore LLC, said the company could have placed 50 OSVs to work on April 19 — a day before BP’s Deepwater Horizon explosion, which killed 11 crew members and set off a gusher of crude 5,000 feet below the Gulf’s surface for more than 80 days. “The OSV market was showing signs of improving,” Foret said. Kurt Crosby, CEO of Crosby Tugs Inc., based in Golden Meadow, La., agreed.