Posted on 09/28/2010 10:14:12 AM PDT by Qbert
Very few offshore oil and natural gas drilling rigs will actually resume activity within the first month the deepwater drilling moratorium is lifted in the Gulf of Mexico, a top Interior Department official said Monday.
"Even when the moratorium is lifted, you won't see drilling going on the next day or even the next week," Michael Bromwich, head of the Interior Department's new Bureau of Ocean Management, Regulation, and Enforcement said during testimony in front of the Oil Spill Commission on Monday.
He said it would be difficult for the oil and gas industry to comply with new safety requirements, which he deemed both "appropriate and necessary." These include identifying worst-case scenarios and preparing spill response plans.
The bureau's report on the moratorium will include rules and recommendations for offshore drilling and should be out this week, Bromwich said.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who also testified at the hearing Monday, said he looks forward to scrutinizing the options presented, as mounting pressure comes from Congress to lift the ban early, before it's scheduled to end in late November.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., has been one of the most outspoken critics of the administration's moratorium. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., late last week, she said she would block the confirmation of the new OMB director until the ban is lifted or "significantly modified." Her Republican counterpart from Louisiana, Sen. David Vitter, supported her effort.
Salazar underscored what he has said since oil began pouring into the Gulf of Mexico in April -- that safety is paramount. The Interior Department's one goal, Salazar said, is "to be able to move forward in a manner that will protect the workers and the environment."
That is the whole idea.
The democrat party seeks to crush US energy production.
who’s fault is that? Libya has a nice new rig tho...
Yeah, as long as the RATS are in charge of issuing drilling permits, recovery will be slow to non-existent.
Shallow wells of 500’ are not covered by the moratorium, however only four permits have been issued since the spill and virtually all of the small companies, such as Horizon, are shut down. The Communist Greenies in this administration are not allowing any drilling off our shores and hoping they can drive these companies into bankruptcy.
The whole idea is to make sure the Moslems In Saudi Arabia don’t lose our business. We must not become energy independent.
Don’t be surprised if Obie lifts the moratorium next week.
Agree. The Democrat leftist enviros can crush the offshore energy industry through onerous regulation and permit delays even in shallow water. Fox Business ran a special about shallow water drilling which is 85% natural gas and how there was a defacto moratorium even though the Feds deny it. There have only been six permits issued since the BP blowout and two oil spills out of tens of thousands of such wells. Those two spills totaled 15 barrels of spill. Despite that, the industry is on life support and will not survive at the present level. Obama's solution: small business loans to further put companies under government control.
“That is the whole idea.
The democrat party seeks to crush US energy production.”
And made possible by a report that purposely lied about what the safety experts actually said...
We've all been in a traffic situation where some idiot up front has stopped or slowed down for no apparent reason, and rather than stay stuck, we gas it, go around, get ahead and get back going.
Soros cannot be the richest man on the planet and certainly there is at least ONE mega-wealthy patriot that would put together the plan that starts building a refinery on property he bought and has armed guards protecting it ... or a flotilla of oil drilling equipment chugging out to a platform, 50 ships or so.
I mean ... if I was a wealthy capitalist right now, I'd be old enough to not give a $hIt about my life and just lay my money down, go around the slowpoke and get back to getting going.
Fix it.........
NObama & his CZARS & minions don’t care-—
They have BLACKMAILED BP for lost wages, etc.
The way I see this—NObama will bill BP for the lost income of the drillers NObama is preventing from getting back to work.
IF anyone at BP has any cojones, they need to sue NObama over this.
Other oil companies also need to sue, since they are being deprived on income & production.
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