• Wednesday, 16 May, 2012

New suspensions for deep-water drilling

Interior Secretary-designate Sen. Ken Salazar D-Colo. adjust his glasses as he testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009, before Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on his nomination. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

US Interior Secretary: Ken Salazar

AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

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Blake Wright

 12 July 2010 21:01 GMT

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) has issued new suspensions of deep-water drilling in the US Gulf applying to drilling operations that use subsea blowout preventers (BOP) or surface BOPs on floating facilities.



According to the new suspensions, the reinstated ban does not suspend activities based on water depth, but on the basis of the drilling configurations and technologies.

The new ban ultimately has a very similar effect as the initial moratorium, however, as written, the new rule would allow platform rigs on fixed structures in over 500 feet of water to resume drilling operations.

According to the BOEM, the deep-water drilling suspensions ordered apply to most deep-water drilling activities and could last through 30 November – a month earlier than the initial ban.

The initial ban was lifted by a federal court on 22 June.

US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said that the ban could end sooner if he determines that deep-water drilling operations can proceed safely.

“More than eighty days into the BP oil spill, a pause on deep-water drilling is essential and appropriate to protect communities, coasts, and wildlife from the risks that deep-water drilling currently pose,” Salazar said. “I am basing my decision on evidence that grows every day of the industry’s inability in the deepwater to contain a catastrophic blowout, respond to an oil spill, and to operate safely.”

The new decision by the Secretary establishes a process through which BOEM will gather and analyse new information from the public, experts, stakeholders, and the industry on safety and response issues, which could potentially provide the basis for identifying conditions for resuming certain deepwater drilling activities.

Louisiana democratic Senator Mary Landreiu condemned the new ban.

“The new plan does not address concerns of the Secretary’s own experts or the courts,” said Landreiu. “The (Deepwater) Horizon accident is the exception and not the rule and it should be treated as such.”

Shallow water drilling and all production in the US Gulf are not affected by the new suspensions.

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