Interior official: No politics behind new drilling permit

The Interior Department’s top offshore drilling regulator is strongly denying that Monday’s approval of the first deepwater drilling permit since last year’s BP oil spill was a political decision.

The approval comes ahead of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s appearance before two Capitol Hill committees later this week to discuss Interior’s budget plan. Republicans and pro-drilling Democrats have for months bashed Interior for failing to issue deepwater new permits even though the formal ban was lifted in October.

But Michael Bromwich, director of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, said the permit for Houston-based Noble Energy had nothing to do with Salazar’s upcoming appearances or politics.

“There is no politics associated with the approval of this application,” he told reporters on a conference call Monday. “It has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that it was ready to be acted on and approved.”

Bromwich added it was unrelated to “anybody’s upcoming testimony.”

Salazar testifies Wednesday before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Thursday before the House Natural Resources Committee.

Bromwich declined to predict when further permits would be approved, noting the agency conducts careful well-by-well analyses. But he expressed hope that reviewing subsequent permit requests will become easier.

The agency is requiring drillers to show compliance with beefed-up safety standards and the ability to swiftly contain runaway wells.

“I think it does get easier, and I am certainly hopeful it will be quicker for us to do the analysis going forward,” Bromwich said.

Bromwich said that some of the uncertainty the industry has claimed existed about the process will be “dispelled” by the permit approval, and that he expects new applications to come forward.

There are currently seven deepwater applications before the regulators, Bromwich said, encompassing new wells, revised wells and other types of projects.

The new permit drew a quick cheer from an industry group.

“The actual issuance of a permit for new deepwater drilling is long awaited and an important step forward in the wise development of energy off our shores. With all the world-complicating factors, including rising oil prices, political turmoil in the Middle East and the loss of jobs in the Gulf of Mexico, this decision offers hope that the United States is getting back in the energy and jobs market,” said Randall Luthi, president of the National Ocean Industries Association.

“Taking the Department of Interior at its word that this is not a token permit and that many are lined up to be approved in the near future, today’s action sends a calming signal to operators, producers and service companies that the long drought is just about over,” he added.