News

Insurers Raise Oil Rig Prices 50% After BP Spill, Moody’s Says

Reading: Insurers Raise Oil Rig Prices 50% After BP Spill, Moody’s Says

 Loading ...

Insurers are charging 50 percent more for policies covering oil rigs in deep water after an explosion on a BP Plc-leased platform in the Gulf of Mexico triggered the worst spill in U.S. history, Moody’s Investors Service said.

The price to insure rigs in shallow waters has risen as much as 25 percent since the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded in April, the ratings company said today. Insurers may pay out as much as $3.5 billion in claims from the U.S. spill, making it the industry’s costliest accident since the Piper Alpha rig fire in the North Sea in 1988, Moody’s said.

“Pricing for offshore energy liability insurance is sure to trend higher as insurers and reinsurers take stock of their losses and reevaluate the complex risks associated with drilling in deep waters,” Moody’s analyst James Eck wrote in a report.

Continue Reading at BusinessWeek.

You might also like

Path Clears for Deep-Water Drilling Deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico could resume within weeks under a policy announced Monday by...

UK Lawmakers Question Deep Water Drilling Safety U.K. lawmakers Thursday raised serious doubts about whether the oil industry is prepared to tackle a...

Panel warns Gulf oil spill could happen again A presidential panel is warning that disasters such as last year's massive Gulf oil spill could happen...

Giant Plumes of Oil Found Under Gulf of Mexico Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as...