Oil drilling in Gulf of Mexico could restart soon
Federal authorities who regulate offshore oil drilling will report earlier than scheduled on whether President Obama should lift a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico that he imposed after the BP oil spill.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will submit its report on deepwater drilling in the Gulf to Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar by the end of the week, Bureau Director Michael Bromwich told a national panel investigating the BP spill Monday. Salazar will then send his recommendation to Obama.
The report, which examines drilling and workplace safety, spill containment and response, was not due until the end of October. The offshore drilling moratorium expires Nov. 30.
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Obama could lift the moratorium before Nov. 30 if the Interior Department determines it is safe to drill in the Gulf. Many Gulf Coast officials complain that the moratorium is damaging the region’s already weakened economy.
“Don’t cripple our industry any further,” Billy Nungesser, president of Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish, said in an interview. “We’re on the brink right now. We’ve got to get those rigs back to work.”
Federal authorities have inspected the 33 deepwater rigs now located in the Gulf and found nine safety violations, former EPA administrator William Reilly said in a press briefing Monday. Reilly is co-chairman of the national commission investigating the spill.
“As of now, it’s not entirely clear what remains to be done,” he said. “I would be very surprised if it doesn’t get lifted before Nov. 30.”
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Even if the moratorium is lifted, Bromwich says, he expects few of the rigs will be able to resume drilling immediately.
He said the Interior Department would issue two “significant” rules toward the end of the week that would impose new technical requirements on the oil industry. The rigs would have to comply with the old and new rules before they could resume operations, he said.
“I don’t know which of the various operators are already compliant and which will take some period of time to comply,” Bromwich said. “Even when the moratorium is lifted, you’re not going to see drilling going on the next day or even the next week.”
The independent commission, led by Reilly and Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., is meeting for two days in Washington as part of its inquiry into the causes of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, the massive oil spill and the federal and industry response. The commission, appointed by Obama, must report its findings Jan. 12.
