The US Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is no stranger to adversity. Over the last four years exploration and production activity in the GoM has been paralyzed by a string of setbacks that have acted to reduce capital investment and harm the region's production profile. The trouble started in the latter half of 2008 as the credit crisis began to unfold. Crashing commodity prices and restricted access to capital slammed the brakes on upstream activity and 2009 proved to be a rather mute year. In the wake of this financial malaise the industry looked towards 2010 as a year of recovery.