Third deepwater drilling permit OK'd

The Interior Department announced Friday it has approved a third permit for deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico for the type of project that was subject to a months-long moratorium in response to the BP oil spill.

The pace of deepwater permitting since the formal ban was lifted in October has been the stuff of intense political controversy, with Republicans and some Democrats alleging the Obama administration is dragging its feet on Gulf development.

Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement Friday approved the permit for ATP Oil & Gas Corp. to resume a project about 90 miles south of Venice, La., that was halted by the ban imposed after BP’s Macondo well blew out last April.

“This permit approval demonstrates that deepwater drilling can and will continue in the Gulf of Mexico provided that operators have successfully demonstrated their ability to operate safely,” said Michael Bromwich, director of the ocean energy bureau, in a statement.

“Further deepwater energy development is necessary and appropriate so long as it is done safely and in an environmentally responsible manner,” he added.

Bromwich’s agency has imposed a suite of new safety mandates, including a requirement that drillers have the capacity to deploy equipment to contain runaway wells. The department approved the first permit to meet the new requirements in late February, and a second followed March 11.

Drilling on the ATP project began in August 2008 in 4,000 feet of water. Here’s more from the ocean energy bureau’s brief history of the ATP project that won approval to proceed Friday:

“Drilling was suspended July 2009, and a rig was on-location April 2010 to prepare for installation of a production facility when activities were suspended due to the temporary drilling suspensions imposed following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill,” the department said.

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