The Obama administration plans to issue a new order to halt deepwater oil and natural gas drilling projects Monday, two people familiar with the matter said.
The Obama administration plans to issue a new order to halt deepwater
oil and natural gas drilling projects Monday, two people familiar with the
matter said.
Details of the new order--such as how many rigs it would cover, and how it
would be structured--were not immediately available. A spokeswoman for the
Department of Interior didn't immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Interior
Secretary Ken Salazar is expected to announce the new moratorium order around
noon
EDT Monday.
In addition, the new chief of the federal agency that regulates offshore drilling
is expected to announce a series of public hearings at which the administration
will solicit public comment on the future of offshore drilling policy.
Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, is
expected to describe his plans for hearings when he testifies Tuesday in New
Orleans before a presidential commission set up to investigate the Gulf of
Mexico oil spill.
The administration bas been battling the oil industry in federal court for
weeks over the legality of halting deepwater drilling operations in the wake of
the April 20 accident involving BP PLC's (BP, BP.LN) Macondo well.
The administration announced its moratorium on May 27, effectively halting new
drilling operations in water depths greater than 500 feet. But a federal judge
blocked the moratorium last month, saying it was arbitrary and capricious. Last
week, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in
New
Orleans
declined to suspend the lower court's order
lifting the ban. The Fifth Circuit is expected to hear the administration's
appeal of the lower court ruling by the end of August.
The administration's moratorium has idled 33 rigs, including eight that had
received permits to drill but which had not started drilling wells yet,
according to the International Association of Drilling Contractors. The
drilling industry has estimated the moratorium will cost rig workers as much as
$330 million a month in direct wages, not counting businesses servicing those
rigs.
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