BP Wins Approval for New Deep-Water Oil Drilling in Gulf of Mexico

http://www.stuarthsmith.com/nowhere-to-hide-new-damning-evidence-that-oil-at-bps... - - don't forget that the macondo well is permanently broken with oil seeping up from the sea floor.

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BP

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BP - BIG PROBLEM

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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/66908.html

Politico...

BP gets new Gulf drilling permit

A BP oil rig is pictured. | AP Photo

By DARREN GOODE | 10/26/11 12:41 PM EDT

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BP is coming back to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Interior Department on Wednesday announced it has granted BP its first deepwater drilling permit since last year’s oil spill.

The permit awarded by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is for an exploratory well in the Keathley Canyon map area, located about 246 miles south of Lafayette, La.

The granting of the permit is the latest sign that the British oil giant is climbing back from the political abyss. The embattled company’s political action committee is almost on pace to match what it donated at the federal level during the 2008 presidential election cycle. Between March and August, BP’s PAC made more than $50,000 in federal-level campaign contributions, ranking it among the cycle’s more generous donors.

Interior last week approved BP’s Gulf of Mexico exploration plan; the permitted well was one of those included in that plan.

“BP has met all of the enhanced safety requirements that we have implemented and applied consistently over the past year,” BSEE Director Michael Bromwich said in a statement. “In addition, BP has adhered to voluntary standards that go beyond the agency’s regulatory requirements.”

The well would be in waters 6,034 feet deep, which is deeper than the company’s doomed 5,000-foot Macondo well that ruptured and sparked a fire on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 workers and led to the biggest spill in U.S. maritime history.

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) blasted the decision to issue the permit before BP paid fines stemming from last year’s spill. “The fact that BP is getting a permit to drill without yet paying a single cent in fines is a disappointment, and does not serve as an effective lesson of deterrence for oil and gas companies,” Markey, the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 12:38 p.m. on October 26, 2011.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/66908.html#ixzz1bvUn4Dz8

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203687504576655193376741316.html?m...

The Wall Street Journal...

OCTOBER 26, 2011, 3:15 P.M. ET

BP Gets First Gulf Permit Since Spill

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By GUY CHAZAN

BP PLC was awarded its first drilling permit in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico since last year's catastrophic oil spill, a big step forward in its post-Deepwater Horizon rehabilitation.

The decision was expected after the U.S. Interior Department approved the company's broader plan for four wells in the Gulf late last week.

BP is the largest lease holder in the deep-water Gulf, an area that has yielded some of its most significant oil discoveries of recent years. But its operations there were hit hard by last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster, caused when the drilling rig it was leasing exploded, killing 11 men and triggering the worst offshore oil-spill in U.S. history.

An official report into the disaster released last month said BP's efforts to save time and cut costs on the well had increased the risk of an accident. It also faulted BP's contractors, rig owner Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton Co. which was in charge of the cementing operation.

The appraisal well that BP won approval to drill is in the Kaskida prospect, a huge area nearly 250 miles south of Lafayette, La. It will be in 6,000 feet of water, meaning it is deeper than the ill-fated Macondo well whose blowout triggered lat year's spill.

In a statement, BP said the permit was "another milestone in our steady return to safety drilling in the Gulf of Mexico." It said it had secured it after several months of "hard work developing and implementing our new drilling standards."

Analysts cheered the development. "It's very important that BP remain part of the Gulf and be able to develop its asset base there," said Jason Kenney, head of oil and gas research at Santander.

In the wake of the April 2010 accident, U.S. regulators imposed a drilling moratorium that was lifted last October and created new, tougher safety requirements. A new agency was set up, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, or BSEE, which since February has approved permits for 46 deep-water wells.

BP had secured three permits to plug and abandon wells but had to wait until Wednesday to win a permit to drill. It is a partner in many Gulf projects which have been given the go-ahead, but it is not the operator in any of them.

The approval was greeted with relief by BP. Before the Gulf crisis, it was producing 440,000 barrels of oil a day in the deep-water Gulf—more than 10% of its global output. That fell to 250,000 barrels a day this year, largely due to BP's inability to drill new wells. The loss of those barrels was one of the main reason BP reported an 11% year-on-year drop in oil and gas output in its third-quarter results Tuesday.

In a statement, Michael Bromwich, director of BSEE, said BP had "adhered to voluntary standards that go beyond the agency's regulatory requirements." He said the permit was approved only after reviews of BP's well design, capabilities for containing a spill and its blowout preventer—the massive set of valves that is the last line of defense if the crew loses control of a well.

BP had already drilled two wells in the Kaskida prospect and was scheduled to drill a third in 2010 using the Deepwater Horizon rig.

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