Oil Drilling Activities News

The city council of Savannah, Georgia on April 30 unanimously approved a resolution opposing offshore seismic testing and oil drilling activities, the Savannah Morning News reported. The city’s opposition comes as the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is trying to open the mid and south Atlantic coastal areas to exploration and development of offshore drilling as part of the Obama Administration’s drafted program to allow exploration and drilling at least 50 miles offshore starting in 2017.

According to MNA, given the rise in the oil prices and the growth in the world’s oil drilling activities, Iran’s oil industry is facing a shortage of drilling rigs, noted an official with the National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC). As a result of the record highs in the oil prices, the prices of the offshore oil drilling rigs have increased by up to 300 percent. The Oil Ministry is planning to within the framework of the nation’s Fourth Five-Year Socioeconomic Development Plan, import eight drilling derricks from foreign companies and purchase four more from the domestic manufacturers. The total number of the drilling rigs - the 12 aforementioned units also included - owned by the NIDC will amount to 60 units, whereas at present, the nation’s oil industry is in need of more than 75.