Gulf drilling moratorium lifted

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Tuesday lifted its moratorium on exploratory drilling in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, potentially blunting a serious political issue in the weeks before the midterm congressional elections, and signaling its confidence in newly tightened regulation.

“There has been significant progress over the last few months in enhancing the safety of future drilling operations, and in addressing some of the weaknesses in spill containment and oil spill response,” Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, said announcing the moratorium’s end Tuesday.

“More needs to be done,” Bromwich said, “but we believe the risks of deep-water drilling have been reduced sufficiently to allow drilling under existing and new regulations.”

But the moratorium’s end satisfied few players involved in offshore oil drilling issues. Some environmentalists criticized ending the drilling suspension while investigations and cleanup continued into the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which killed 11 people and unleashed the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Oil industry representatives and their congressional allies raised fears that the new, more stringent regulations the Interior Department has put in place could slow the issuing of permits and lead to a de facto moratorium.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar suspended deep-water drilling in May and, after a federal court threw out the ban, reissued a moratorium in July. The moratorium affected about 36 rigs in the Gulf of Mexico that were exploring new reservoirs of oil and gas in water more than 500 feet deep. Extraction of oil and gas in the Gulf, which accounts for one-third of domestic production, continued largely unabated.

At the time, the industry and Gulf Coast politicians warned that the moratorium would lead to an exodus of jobs from the area to other oil-producing regions. Employment and rig losses turned out to be far less than predicted.

The end of the moratorium did not placate Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who said Tuesday she will not lift her hold on the nomination of Jack Lew as the new head of the White House Office of Management and Budget, placed in protest of the drilling suspension.

The oil industry and allies such as Landrieu said they want swift approvals for new deep-water permits so companies do not leave for other parts of the world. In the six months since BP’s well blowout, 12 permits for drilling in shallow waters have been issued; prior to the accident, the Interior Department issued 12 per month.