News starting to trickel in about the situation. If true $4 is going to be a deal real soon.
There are MANY production platform smissing (as in not visible from the air). This means they have been totally lost. I am talking about 10's of platforms, not single digit numbers.
Each platform can have from 4 to 100+ wells on it. Most larger ones have 20-30 wells in this area, with numerous caisson wells. They are on their sides, on the bottom of the gulf - they will likely be left as reef material, provided we can get permission. MMS regulations require us to plug each of the wells that were on these platforms - HUGE cost now, as the platforms are gone.