Washington, April 05: Washington has denied reports that it has signed an agreement with BP, allowing the energy giant to resume drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
“There is absolutely no such agreement nor would there be such an agreement with BP to resume drilling,” Reuters quoted US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as telling reporters during a news conference in Mexico City on Monday.
He added that the company would need to go through the same set of standards to resume drilling that the United States has set for other companies.
His remarks were echoed by a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, who rejected media reports that BP was striking a deal to resume deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
“There is no deal. There is no agreement. There is no draft agreement. There are no ongoing talks. There are no ongoing negotiations. We issue permits based on the merits of the application. We have issued no permits to BP to date,” Melissa Schwartz said in an email.
British media reported on Sunday that BP had reached a deal with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement to resume drilling as part of several projects stalled by last year’s Gulf of Mexico spill.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the United States was an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which flowed for three months in 2010. The impact of the spill still continues even from the well was capped. It was the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.
The spill stemmed from a sea-floor oil gusher that resulted from the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion. The explosion killed 11 men working on the platform and injured 17 others.
On July 15, the leak was stopped by capping the gushing wellhead, after it had released about 4.9 million barrel, or 205.8 million gallons of crude oil.
——–Agencies