BP plans to drill deeper than ever

LONDON, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- British energy company BP is exploring technology that would allow it to drill oil wells deeper than ever, the company's chief executive said.

BP Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley was quoted by The Daily Telegraph newspaper in London as saying his company was looking into technologies that would help in "drilling deeper wells and overcoming the challenges of developing and exploiting ever higher pressure resources."

BP is in a court battle with Transocean and Halliburton, its partners at the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico. An explosion in 2010 at the Deepwater Horizon rig at the site led to one of the worst oil spills in history.

The Deepwater Horizon drilling platform was designed to drill as deep as 30,000 feet. BP's deepest well was 35,000 feet in the Gulf of Mexico in 2009.

Dudley said his company shouldn't "stop dead in the water" with its deep-water ambitions because of the deadly 2010 accident.

Dudley was quoted as saying the southern U.S. coast was clean nearly two years after the spill.

"The beaches are clean, the water is open, the seafood is as good as ever," he said.

Washington, after lifting a ban on deep-water drilling, said it was opening some parts of the Gulf of Mexico to energy companies.