Interior demands more info from oil drillers

The Obama administration on Wednesday stepped up efforts to show that it is toughening offshore drilling oversight by announcing that it will require oil and gas companies to submit more information about their projects before proceeding.

The administration made the announcement through Bob Abbey, the newly installed head of the beleaguered Minerals Management Service, as it seeks to highlight reforms in the wake of the BP oil spill.

Among the new requirements: exploration and development plans previously approved using a waiver from full environmental studies — called a “categorical exclusion" — must now resubmit their plans.

The administration has already imposed a ban of at least six months on permits for new projects in more than 500 feet of water. The deepwater ban is in place while a bipartisan commission the White House established examines needed overhauls in regulation, law and industry practices.

Wells in shallower waters may proceed under increased safeguards, according to the Interior Department.

The new steps come amid increasing scrutiny of “categorical exclusions” under which projects — like BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling plan that went catastrophically awry in the Gulf of Mexico — do not receive a full analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Such waivers are under review by Interior and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. The White House is also pushing Congress to lift what’s now a 30-day deadline to review industry oil-and-gas exploration plans.

“The approach I am announcing today is not an ideal solution, but it is an interim strategy that MMS will employ until Congress fixes the law and until additional reform recommendations from CEQ and DOI are developed and implemented,” Abbey said in a prepared statement Wednesday evening.