HOUSTON -- President Barack Obama has ordered all new offshore drilling be put on hold, until investigators figure out what happened in the oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
People in the energy sector still have a lot of questions about what this will mean, but right now, some see it as potentially bad news.
"If there's an immediate moratorium, it'll affect the entire industry," says Allen Sinor of Baker Hughes."The operators, the BPs, the Shells that are out there in the Gulf of Mexico today, along with all the other service companies out there in this very expensive environment."
The Obama administration says no new oil leases will be issued unless rigs have new safeguards to prevent another disaster like the one currently in the Gulf. The President has given his staff 30 days to come up with those new safeguards.
"I think any decisions to halt drilling, industry-wide, or America-wide, is a huge over reaction," says Republican Rep. Kevin Brady, of the Woodlands.
But an official with the Offshore Technology Conference, which beings in Houston next week, sees it differently.
Susan Cunningham, the chairman of the OTC, sees not much of an immediate impact at all, because no new oil leases are in the works for the next 30 days.
