It has also fuelled a growing demand from oil and gas field operators and rig owners for greater levels of risk management around well control issues as the underwriting community looks at their liability limits.

Following the Deepwater Horizon incident, firms have been calling in risk experts to assess the ramifications of the rig loss and subsequent pollution as underwriters face a risk which had been viewed as the worst case scenario.

Andrew Rees, Director at risk assessment and loss adjusting service MatthewsDaniel, , who are understood to be involved as the loss adjuster for the Deepwater Horizon rig, said the offshore community was still assessing the impact of recent events and what it will mean for the future.

“From a well control perspective, an event like this is the offshore energy insurance market's worst case scenario, the perfect storm which they hoped would never happen.  It is in effect the first uncontrolled flow of oil we have seen from a deepwater well and the pollution aspect has clearly dominated the headlines”.

“In the 20 years since the start of deep water drilling operations, there has never been an event like it and all operators are looking to see how they can be sure they do not suffer a similar loss.

“There will always be drilling related losses in the energy sector given the nature of the risk, which involves sophisticated equipment, technology and geological uncertainty.  These aspects are compounded when drilling in deep water environments.”

“It has been the improved technology which has opened the possibilities of access to new reserves and as the price of oil and gas has increased we have seen fields which were deemed uneconomic become attractive to energy firms.”

Whilst the official independent reports into the Deepwater Horizon incident are awaited, there is a great deal of information on the enquiries already on various official websites and the information is being eagerly digested by the energy market.

“There is little doubt it has had a fundamental effect in the offshore market and particularly in the Gulf of Mexico, where we now have a new regulatory regime coming into force.” he added.