Kevin Jarman, Managing Director of Matthews Daniel said the decision to move many rigs to other areas across the world where they can operate is creating new risk for underwriters but storing up problems for the future of oil and gas supplies from the Gulf of Mexico.

Mr Jarman said his firm had received  growing numbers of enquires over the risk assessment of moving rigs out of the gulf either to be  put in services in South America of Asia or to be mothballed as the US moratorium continues.

“There is no definitive information at present as to how long the moratorium will last,” he explained. “We are seeing the departure of many assets from the offshore fields in the Gulf of Mexico as they can be actively employed elsewhere to they are being moved to areas were they can be mothballed until such time as the moratorium has ended.”

He added that the movement of such assets was not without risk and his firms were working with a number of clients to conduct risk assessments prior to the rig movements.

“Many are heading for South America and Asia,” he explained. “With such movements there is an element of risk and underwriters are being asked to cover an increasing number of such risks.”

He added: “The departure of equipment has been such that when the moratorium is lifted it will take a considerable period of time for the assets to be put back in place to restore production to the levels prior to the moratorium coming into effect.”

The moratorium has also led to the potential for a raft of claims as the rig owners and thee energy companies which had hired the rigs dispute the contracts under which they were commissioned.

There have been growing numbers of reports that energy firms are seeking to cancel contracts describing the moratorium as a Force Majeure and as such a reason to terminate the contracts.

Rig owners are naturally disputing the claim and there is already talk of legal actions between a number.