Interior seeks détente with shallow-water drillers

The Interior Department’s top offshore drilling regulator acknowledged Monday that new safety rules have prompted a slowdown in permits for shallow-water oil-and-gas projects and pledged to help the industry navigate the requirements.

But Interior’s Michael Bromwich — in a statement after meeting with industry officials in Louisiana — also defended the mandates imposed in June in response to the BP oil spill.

"I understand the frustration that people feel because we are not able to review and approve applications as expeditiously as we have in the past. But the central fact is that it has taken time to submit and verify the additional required information. We will not approve applications until and unless they fully comply with the new requirements. That will not make everyone happy, but it is the right way to proceed," said Bromwich, the director of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), in a statement Monday.

The meeting also included Louisiana Lt. Gov. Scott Angelle (D).

Deepwater projects are under a drilling ban that's slated to run through late November, but it might end earlier. But companies that operate in shallow waters have for months complained that new permits for their projects have slowed to a crawl at best, even though they’re not officially subject to the moratorium.

Since the new safety requirements were issued in June, regulators have issued five permits and eight are pending, according to BOEMRE.

The meeting occurred ahead of a public forum on drilling in Lafayette — the eighth and last of several hearings that BOEMRE is conducting on offshore safety.