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February 2011

Vol. 16, No. 8 Week of February 20, 2011

Senators urge streamlining of OCS permits

Accusing the U.S. Department of the Interior of imposing a de facto moratorium on outer continental shelf oil and gas drilling by impeding the issue of new drilling permits, a group of U.S. senators, led by Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Mary Landrieu, D-La., have sent a resolution to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, urging that Interior streamline the review of offshore drilling permit applications and provides guidance on how operators can meet new safety stipulations.

In 2010 Interior introduced new safety rules for offshore drilling in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The senators say that a lack of clarity over how the new rules are to be applied has stalled the processing of drilling permits.

Rigs leaving the Gulf

With no new deepwater drilling permits and less than 35 new shallow water permits having been issued since the lifting of a shallow water drilling moratorium in May 6, 2010, and the lifting of a deep water moratorium on Oct. 12, drilling rigs have been leaving the Gulf, the senators say.

“Energy producers must have adequate guidance on new safety and environmental regulations so they can put Americans back to work and continue to strengthen our domestic energy supply to keep fuel costs low,” Hutchison said.

“The effects of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy spread far and wide, even to offshore Alaska,” said Sen. Mark Begich, one of the senators in the group. “While we support reasonable environmental protections … development timelines in the Arctic are already long enough and further delay will only have oil companies investing the sizeable capital it takes to get these projects done elsewhere.”

In December the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said that it is preparing a guidance document to clarify procedures under new OCS drilling regulations.

—Alan Bailey






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