Drill, Baby, Drill… Deepwater Moratorium Lifted

Well, they’ve done it, and ahead of schedule.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has determined it is appropriate that deepwater oil and gas drilling resume, provided that operators certify compliance with all existing rules and requirements, including those that recently went into effect, and demonstrate the availability of adequate blowout containment resources…

“In light of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, we must continue to take a cautious approach when it comes to deepwater drilling and remain aggressive in raising the bar for the oil and gas industry’s safety and environmental practices,” said Salazar. “We have more work to do in our reform agenda, but at this point we believe the strengthened safety measures we have implemented, along with improved spill response and blowout containment capabilities, have reduced risks to a point where operators who play by the rules and clear the higher bar can be allowed to resume.”

This should make a lot of folks in the industry happy, although the headlines have been lukewarm:

• “Deepwater moratorium ends; groups fear further slowdown” (Oil and Gas Journal)
• “Drilling moratorium lifted, questions remain on when work will resume” (New Orleans Times Picayune)
• “Moratorium lifted? Color us unimpressed” (The Hayride blog)
• “Salazar lifts the drilling moratorium: Is that a good idea?” (the New Republic)

But somebody must think it’s a good idea, since the AP reports that shares in offshore rig operators were up on the news.

So is this a return to business as usual? Probably not – Interior has issued a slew of new regulations,  with stronger controls (and more environmental checks) put in place (link: PDF) at every step of the approval process.

Noting that “Well bore integrity provides the first line of defense against a blowout by preventing a loss of well control,” the new rules close the barn door on several of the issues that contributed to the Deepwater Horizon blowout, including “the appropriate use of drilling fluids and the well bore casing and cementing program”.

And the new rules also take what had been “guidelines” (from the American Petroleum Institute, no less) and make them mandatory. (For the full outline of new regulations, see the DOI Fact Sheet PDF)

Will this be enough? We’ll have to wait and see… but we’re rolling the dice as of today.

(Photo by eschipul under a creative commons license)