The following from Peak Oil Report dated 5/17/10

The economic impact

Whether it takes days or months to plug the leaking well, its economic impact is likely to be felt for many years or perhaps decades in the form of higher prices for oil and gas derived from offshore wells. There are currently some 75,000 offshore jobs in the Gulf of Mexico. Many of these will be threatened by lengthy delays in obtaining drilling permits or by the manufacture of new and hopefully more effective safety equipment.

It is likely that practices regulated for drilling in US waters will be expanded to include all deepwater drilling around the globe. BP has already announced that it will postpone work on the 3 billion-barrel Tiber field in the Gulf until new equipment and procedures are ready. As BP prepares to open new fields in sensitive cod-spawning areas off the northern Norwegian coast, politicians are already raising flags. Even the Koreans are concerned that the oil spill will eventually result in higher prices damaging their prospects for economic recovery.

Ottawa has announced that it is will review safety requirements for offshore drilling projects in an effort to avoid a similar mishap. The opposition is already calling for a moratorium on offshore drilling until new rules are in place. The industry is already claiming that the suspension of new permits in the Gulf is already stranding billions of barrels of oil and Total is saying that the European credit crisis will slow new oil projects by making borrowing more difficult.