WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Monday it will allow 13 companies to resume deepwater drilling without any additional environmental scrutiny, just months after saying it would require strict reviews for new drilling in the wake of the BP oil spill.
The government said it was not breaking its promise to require environmental reviews because the 13 companies — which include Chevron USA Inc. and Shell Offshore Inc. — had already started drilling the wells without detailed environmental studies.
Drilling was suspended last year when the administration imposed a months-long moratorium following the BP spill. The ban was lifted in October, but drilling has not yet resumed in waters deeper than 500 feet (152 metres) in the Gulf of Mexico.
U.S. officials said the 13 companies must comply with new policies and rules before resuming activity at 16 Gulf of Mexico wells. All but three are exploratory wells — the same type BP was drilling when the blowout of the Deepwater Horizon rig occurred. The April 20 explosion killed 11 workers and set off the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
“For those companies that were in the midst of operations at the time of the deepwater suspensions (last spring), today’s notification is a significant step toward resuming their permitted activity,” said Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.
The decision is a victory for the drilling companies, which in the past had routinely won broad waivers from rules requiring detailed environmental studies. After the BP disaster, the Obama administration pledged it would require companies to complete environmental reviews before being allowed to drill for oil.
The administration has been under heavy pressure from the oil industry, Gulf state leaders and congressional Republicans to speed up drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, which has come to a near halt since the moratorium on deepwater drilling was imposed last spring.
The delay is hurting big oil companies such as Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, which have billions of dollars in investments tied up in Gulf projects that are on hold. Smaller operators such as ATP Oil & Gas Corp., Murphy Exploration & Production Co.-USA, and Noble Energy Inc., also have been affected.
A federal report said the moratorium probably caused a temporary loss of 8,000 to 12,000 jobs.