BP denied permission to begin drilling in Gulf of Mexico
The US government lashed out at companies at the heart of last year's Gulf oil spill, denying reports it had negotiated a deal with BP to resume drilling. Tough talk by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar highlights the Obama administration's sensitivity toward letting BP the biggest holder of deepwater acreage in the Gulf of Mexico.
The blast killed 11 workers, ruptured the company's underwater Macondo well and unleashed millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Since the government lifted a ban on drilling in the region in October established after the spill, BP has submitted one permit application to drill one well, said a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the request was under review.
British media reported on the weekend that BP is in talks with Washington to restart drilling at existing fields. "There is absolutely no such agreement nor would there be such an agreement" with BP to resume drilling, Salazar said at a briefing while visiting the Mexican capital.
Salazar said that BP would need to go through the same review process to resume drilling as other companies. "If they follow all the rules and they actually submit a development plan that is deemed safe and best practice, they're going to get issued a permit," said Ken Medlock, an energy fellow at the Baker Institute at Rice University in Houston.
"It's obviously not going to be without scrutiny," he said.
Salazar also condemned rig operator Transocean Ltd for granting bonuses based on what it said last week was an "exemplary" safety record in 2010, notwithstanding the deaths from rig blast. One of the leading members of a presidential panel on deepwater drilling said the firm "just doesn't get it".
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