WASHINGTON -- BP won approval from the Interior Department for a plan to explore for oil and gas in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, moving the company closer to drilling new wells halted when the blowout of its Macondo well touched off the country's worst offshore environmental disaster.
The exploration plan was the first BP submitted to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, killing 11 workers and spewing nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the ocean. Although BOEM approved the plan, BP still needs permits to drill a particular well.
BOEM approved the exploration plan under more stringent rules it developed for the industry after the Deepwater Horizon explosion revealed the uneven, sometimes lax oversight of offshore energy production by the Minerals Management Service, the new agency's predecessor.
For an exploration plan to be approved, a company must now submit a range of specific technical and environmental information as well as plans to handle a worst-case spill scenario in the event of a blow-out. BOEM also does its own environmental assessment of the drill sites.
The oil industry and its congressional allies have complained that BOEM is issuing approvals too slowly, and they have demanded that the agency return to the rapid clip of approvals that existed before the oil disaster.
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BP, still the largest oil and gas producer in the Gulf of Mexico, did not have to meet more stringent requirements than any of the other 43 companies that have had exploration plans approved.
David Pettit, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said that barring litigation, the chances were highly likely that BP would get drilling permits. Pettit said that while the new BOEM is better than its predecessor, more work needs to be done to improve offshore drilling safety, including pushing for "a redesign of deep sea blowout preventers, and moderniz(ing) cleanup procedures," in the event of a spill.
Under the newly approved exploration plan, BP proposes drilling up to four wells in sites it BP acquired in lease sales in 1997 and 2003, according to BOEM. The wells would be drilled in water depths ranging from 6,019 to 6,034 feet, and they would be located 192 miles from the closest Louisiana shoreline.
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©2011 Tribune Co.
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