Delays in offshore drilling to continue after moratorium lifted

Houston Chronicle:

The Obama administration is inching closer to lifting its moratorium on deep-water drilling, but even when the ban ends, it will be a while before drill bits resume burring into seabed, a top U.S. regulator said Monday.

The speed of resumed drilling depends on how quickly oil companies comply with new offshore regulations, including a broad set of mandates set to be issued later this week, said Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

"Even when the moratorium is lifted, you're not going to see drilling going on the next day or even the next week," Bromwich told a national commission investigating the oil spill. "It is going to take time."

Although Bromwich refused to make a specific prediction about how quickly rigs would be back up and running, he speculated that "probably very few" drilling projects would resume within a month of the ban's end.

...
The regulators are going to make producers jump through some hoops so they can cover their own rears in the event of another accident. I think the prospects for another accident are remote. These companies are in business to make money and they don't make money off of blowouts and oil cleanups. They will take care of business without the additional regulations.

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