The Obama administration has set the month of November for the lifting of the moratorium on offshore drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico in places such as the Outer Continental Shelf. However, the administration has maintained that the moratorium may be lifted earlier depending on drilling safety, as well as the improved capacity of the oil and gas industry to respond to spills like the devastating Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Industry analysts believe that it won’t be possible for companies to begin drilling soon after the moratorium is lifted, because of the time needed to comply with new drilling safety regulations.
According to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, it is very likely that drilling operations will not commence immediately or even a few weeks after the moratorium is lifted. In fact, the agency does not even expect most of the companies to begin drilling one month after the deepwater drilling moratorium is lifted.
This week, the US Interior Department issued two new regulations. These regulations include enhanced technical requirements for oil and gas wells. Some companies that already have some of the standards in place will find it easier to begin drilling immediately after the moratorium has been lifted. Other companies will have to comply with the new regulations before they begin drilling.
Oil and gas industry analysts and maritime lawyers have welcomed the agency’s new regulations as an attempt to overhaul the current system. However, the administration must hurry up lifting the moratorium, because of the continued threat to the livelihood of thousands of oil and gas industry employees, maritime workers and longshoremen, among other Gulf Coast workers. We have worked with maritime employees injured on the Outer Continental Shelf for over 45 years.
