Martin Feldman News

Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. (NYSE:HOS) is reviewing the Secretary of the Interior’s latest offshore drilling moratorium and has substantial concerns about its consistency with the June 22, 2010 order by U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman. Judge Feldman ruled in favor of Hornbeck Offshore’s action to block a six-month federal moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Subsequent challenges to the judge’s order by the federal government were denied, including last week’s ruling by the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) said it is encouraged by the June 22 decision in Federal court in New Orleans. The association said Judge Martin Feldman’s ruling means that, from this point forward, more attention must be paid to the rule of law and that the Administration must fully consider the economic impacts of its blanket moratorium on offshore drilling operations. The lawsuit’s success underscores that federal decisions must be made on the basis of demonstrable proof that ongoing operations pose some risk, not on the simple political expediency of declaring a stop work order. Since the 33 deepwater drilling platforms were closely re-inspected after the Deepwater Horizon accident and deemed safe to continue their work…

While offshore drillers, service and product suppliers received a bit of good news when U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman's ruled yesterday to remove the Obama Administration’s six-month moratorium on offshore drilling, questions regarding how quickly operations will return to normal are still up in the air, as according to the Wall Street Journal the administration vows to fight the decision. "Judge Feldman recognized the potential for the ban to cause significant economic harm to our country and the Gulf Coast…