Going off script in the Gulf of Mexico

Output is still rising in the Gulf of Mexico, even if the longer-term picture is cloudier

THE BIG screen version of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster will hit cinemas this autumn, bringing a time of existential angst for America’s offshore oil industry back to the fore. In the weeks and months after the accident, as CNN ran a live feed of crude spewing into the Gulf of Mexico and the government shut down the sector, a recovery in the US offshore seemed distant. But six years on, the sector has not only moved on from the tragedy but emerged as a relative bright spot in America’s oil landscape. High oil prices and a string of exploration successes saw the pipeline of new GoM projects fill up after the Macondo disaster. Today, those discoveries are yielding new barrels – defying t