The Q4000 burns off oil and gas in a huge flare at the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout site in the Gulf of Mexico July 10, 2010. BP is changing the device capturing oil from the leaking well and plans to have a new, more efficient device in place in seven days, though in the meantime oil is gushing unchecked from the well. UPI/A.J. Sisco. |
License Photo
NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Oil companies report they're still waiting for permits to drill in the Gulf of Mexico two months after the Obama administration lifted its ban.
Experts said the delay for permits could extend until the second half of 2011 and possibly into 2012, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The administration says it's being deliberate in enforcing new safety rules adopted in the wake of the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 workers and touched off the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
The delay is hurting large and small oil companies alike because of the money tied up in gulf projects that are on hold, the Journal said. The impact extends beyond the oil industry because the Gulf Coast economy hasn't recovered from the months-long spill.
The slowdown also has long-term repercussions for U.S. oil production, the Journal said. The Energy Information Administration last month predicted domestic offshore oil production will fall 13 percent in 2011 from 2010 because of the moratorium and the slow return to drilling.
The disaster proved reviews of permits must be more thorough, environmentalists said.
"The process can work efficiently," Elgie Holstein, a staff expert at the Environmental Defense Fund, told the Journal. "Maybe not as quickly as it did before, but that's understandable."
Erik Milito, with the American Petroleum Institute lobbying group, said rigs will leave the gulf soon if drilling isn't allowed to resume.
"They're doing everything they can to keep the contracted rigs in the gulf," Milito said. "But they're idle, they're not able to do the work they intended to be out there doing, and that can only go on so long."
