The Importance of an Independent Insurance Company in Oil Drilling

In the environmental permit that Exxon had to get in order to start drilling offshore, it is laid out as a requirement of that permit that they have to have insurance policy from an independent insurer. They can't self ensure which is what oil companies usually do. The judge in their favor and said yeah you're right Exxon, you need to have this in writing within 30 days. That's really, really huge because basically in Guyana, as in most other places that they're operating outside of the US, they use like a local subsidiary that has very few assets.