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WASHINGTON/NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - The Obama administration said on Thursday it will immediately issue a revised ban on deepwater drilling if an appeals court does not allow it to reinstate the six-month moratorium it imposed in the wake of the BP oil spill...

Govt: Obama Drilling Ban to Cut Supply Sharply Thursday, 08 Jul 2010 09:42 AM The Obama administration's contested moratorium on deepwater drilling will take a larger portion out of U.S. oil production next year than previously thought, the government's energy forecasting agency said on Wednesday. Oil production next year is expected to be cut by 82,000 barrels per day, or almost 30 million barrels total, due to delayed or canceled drilling caused by the moratorium, the Energy Information Administration said. That is 17 percent more from the 70,000 bpd in lost output the agency predicted just last month. Monthly production...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has asked a federal court in Louisiana to reinstate the ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, saying the moratorium was a rational response to the unprecedented emergency of the BP oil spill. In a court filing late Tuesday, the Interior Department said that the six-month ban on drilling in more than 500 feet of water, imposed in late May, was necessary to allow time to adopt stricter safety and environmental regulation of deepwater wells. The action has put hundreds of people who operate and service deepwater wells out of work and brought...

A report prepared for President Obama by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and others regarding suggested handling of the BP (NYSE: BP) and Transocean (NYSE: RIG) gulf tragedy may have a spurious heritage. According to Salazar, the report, which included suggestions for 22 safety measures, along with a recommended six-month moratorium on drilling in gulf waters deeper than 500 feet, had been "peer reviewed" by a panel of seven experts. But a majority of the panel members, along with others who worked on the report, have had their feathers ruffled. It seems that they had agreed on an earlier version of...

Mr. Charlie has seen the up and downs over the years in the oil patch off Louisiana's coast, but this could be the toughest slump of all. Earlier this week, the steel rig stationed on the Atchafalaya River graduated what could be one of its last classes of workers prepping for the rigors of offshore life. President Barack Obama's six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf has sent shudders across the coast's offshore oil industry — where no one knows just how extensive or long-lasting the damage to jobs may be.