New U.S. Drilling Moratorium: Same Song, Different Verse

Rigzone ^ | Tuesday, July 13, 2010 | Rigzone Staff |

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar on Monday directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) to issue new suspensions of deepwater drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), including the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific regions through Nov. 30 of this year.

The new drilling suspensions marks Salazar and BOEM's second effort to suspend deepwater drilling operations in the U.S. Gulf in response to the BP oil spill. The first moratorium, issued in late May, was lifted by a district judge on June 22; a panel of federal district judges refused BOEM's appeal to reverse the lower court's decision.

The new suspensions would apply to drilling operations that use subsea blowout preventers (BOP) or surface BOPs on floating facilities. Secretary Salazar has further directed BOEM to cease the approval of pending and future applications for permits to drill wells using subsea or surface BOPs on a floating facility.

While the May 27 moratorium suspended drilling activity by water depths, the new moratorium would not suspend activity based on water depth, but on the basis of drilling configurations and technologies.

"While the new version is effectively the same as the old one, it appears the DOI's legal team used the new version as a rebuttal to the recent legal proceedings, with more evidence to address the deficiencies of the old moratorium," said Jefferies & Co. Inc. Analyst Judson E. Bailey in a recent report. Bailey described the new moratorium as the "same package wrapped in different paper."

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Related article:

Analysis: Moratorium Leads to Anemic Shallow Water Permitting

***********************************EXCERPT******************************************

The approval process for "Applications for Permits to Drills" (APDs) has ground to a halt following the six-month imposed drilling moratorium put in place on May 30, 2010. We note that while two Notices to Lessees and Operators (NTLs) from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE, was formerly the MMS) for new safety requirements along with guidelines for additional information on drilling plans were issued on June 8, 2010 and June 18, 2010, approvals for drilling plans in waters less than 500' have yet to take hold. Just one APD that was submitted since May 30, 2010 has been approved (to Apache on July 7, 2010) in what can only be described as federal feet dragging.

[TommyDale]

The Obama Bozos will not stop until they have completely killed the entire oil industry in America.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Meanwhile...a report also from Rigzone...not much new for those of us that have been following the Oil Drum reports:

BP Starts Tests to Determine Success of New Cap

[FlyingEagle]

Same bs, different day.

I wish the court would issue a bench warrant for Salazar for contempt and sling him into jail in an orange jumpsuit, no bail.

[oldtimer]

We don't need no stinking Court to tell us what to do!

[sergeantdave]

I’ve been sitting here waiting since obuma got elected for one of his gutter-slurping pigs to come along and tell me what to do or not to do.

Still waiting...

[NTHockey]

At some point, a judge will have had enough of this crap and find the Interior Department, Salazar and EPA in contempt of court.