Jun. 7, 2010 (United Press International) -- A six-month ban on oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico could cost the city of Houston 50,000 jobs, an oil industry expert said.
"Six months could be 50,000 jobs that either people get laid off or redeployed out of their region, which means their money is not being spent here," said John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil Co., the Houston Chronicle reported Monday.
President Barack Obama ordered a cessation of oil exploration at 33 oil platforms and banned new drilling permits in the gulf until November while investigations continue into the cause of an April 20 explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.
BP's Deepwater Horizon well is now the site of the largest oil spill in U.S. history. The explosion at the platform killed 11 people and oil has been spewing from the well for six weeks.
A number of firms, including Halliburton Co. (NYSE:HAL) , Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHI) Plains Exploration & Production Co. (NYSE:PXP) and Newfield Exploration Co. (NYSE:NFX) have said they were considering moving workers away from the Houston area or pulling away from projects designed for the gulf, the newspaper said.
Before the explosion, "The deep-water Gulf of Mexico was really looking like an important component of the future," of Houston's economy, said William Arnold, a professor of energy management at Rice University.
