Deep-water drilling ban may end early

The Obama administration’s moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico could be lifted earlier than its November 30 expiry date if oil companies could show they had improved their spill containment and response plans, the drilling watchdog said on Tuesday.

The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management – previously the Minerals Management Service – will on Wednesday start holding public forums on the moratorium, opening in New Orleans and continuing in California, Alaska, Mississippi and Texas over the next six weeks.

The forums would focus on drilling and workplace safety, spill containment and spill response, in an effort to develop a “level of comfort” that would allow the interior department to lift the moratorium, said Michael Bromwich, director of the bureau.

The four oil majors will on Wednesday present a proposed spill containment plan – Mr Bromwich called it “enormously expensive” at $1bn (€755m, £627m) – which would see containment units kept on the sea floor, ready for immediate deployment in case of a spill.

The plan was a sign of how seriously oil groups were now taking safety, he said.

Academics and environmentalists will also give their opinions on the ban, imposed after the catastrophic BP oil spill, which has blocked drilling at 33 exploratory wells in the gulf and stopped any new deep-water projects being approved.

It is in place until November 30 but Mr Bromwich said the facts might allow it to be lifted “in a principled way some time earlier than that”.

In passing the Clear Act drilling safety law last week, lawmakers in the House suggested the moratorium could be lifted on a case-by-case basis, rather than all drillers having to wait for everyone to get the green light.

However, Mr Bromwich said that such an approach would be too arbitrary – relying on the inherently subjective judgment of each inspector – and that he preferred the moratorium to be lifted according to categories of wells and equipment.

“I feel much more comfortable in creating broad-based principles and broad categories by which we can say, we feel comfortable with allowing this category of rig to drill even in deep water,” Mr Bromwich said.

This came as BP began its “static kill” of the leaking Macondo well to seal it permanently, pumping mud slowly down from the top of the well, pushing the oil back into the reservoir and then sealing it with cement.

Admiral Thad Allen, national incident commander, said, however, that the well would also need to be killed from the bottom, with a relief well pumping cement in later this month, before BP could permanently abandon it.

“The relief wells are the answer,” he said. “This thing won’t truly be sealed until the relief wells are done.”

Separately, Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate, on Tuesday scrapped plans to bring a “drill and spill bill” to the floor this week.

In the face of almost-certain defeat, Mr Reid delayed discussion of the bill, which would combine promotion of clean energy with new oil spill laws, until at least September, after this month’s recess.