The Obama administration a moratorium on new oil drilling in deep water on Monday, a move the industry said was unnecessary and would place tens of thousands of jobs at risk. Shares in BP Plc shares rose, and sources said the British oil giant is in talks with U.S. energy company Apache Corp. and others to sell assets worth up to $ 10 billion. Meanwhile, BP was in the process of installing a new cap on his torn deep sea and try to almost all the oil in the Gulf of Mexico spitting on the 84th day record.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar unveiled the new six-month moratorium, rewording of a previous drilling ban after a U.S. appeals court hit down the original moratorium last week.
“I base my decision on evidence that each day of the inability of the industry is growing in the deep sea to contain a catastrophic blowout, responding to a wildfire and to work safely,” said Salazar.
The new ban will extend until November 30 and affect the same rigs as before, although it is based on the types of drilling technologies rather than on the water depth as the old one.
President Barack Obama is under pressure to make safer offshore drilling unit and BP justified as the leakage one billion trade tourism and the fishing industry hurts all five states along the Gulf of Mexico account.
The oil industry reacted to the new drilling ban by saying it would make matters worse.
“It is unnecessary and shortsighted to close a large part of the energy lifeline of the nation while working to improve offshore safety,” said CEO Jack Gerard American Petroleum Institute. “Placing the jobs of tens of thousands of workers in grave and imminent danger and promises a substantial reduction in domestic energy production.”
Analysts said the oil industry was likely to contest the new ban in court, but the drilling was not likely to resume soon in anticipation of a long legal battle.
The White House was convinced that the new moratorium would stand up in court, spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Fear of new rules and regulations has already led many drillers their discovery in the Gulf of Mexico slowly, and some energy analysts have said the hesitation may take longer than six months.
In New Orleans, Obama’s independent oil spill Commission adopted its first hearings on the impact of the spill and the drilling ban.
Michael Hecht, of the development agency Greater New Orleans Inc., told the hearing of a drilling freeze threatened 24,000 jobs in Louisiana alone.
The panel of seven engineers, environmental experts and former politicians will examine the decisions of the oil companies and government regulators that may have led to the disaster. Its findings will be crucial for any new regulations put in place and a possible relaxation of the ban on drilling.
BP jumped ASSET SHARES TALKS
BP shares rose over 9 percent in London and nearly 8 percent in New York on Monday, driven by the potential sale of assets and hopes for a new system for nearly all oil spewing from the catch.
“It’s probably worth more than what it is trading for now as they ever covered this well and get the cleanup work really go,” said Ted Parrish, co-portfolio manager at Henssler Equity Fund in Georgia.
The sale of assets in an exploratory conversations and it was uncertain whether all the plans were enough to be published before BP announced second-quarter earnings this month.
BP has a 26 percent stake in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, the largest oilfield in North America and one of the 20 largest ever discovered.
Apache and BP declined to comment on reports of the talks.
BP is to install a new roof on the flow on Monday and later said it could absorb almost all of the leaking oil for the first time.
“It’s very close,” said Doug Suttles, chief operating officer of BP Exploration and Production. “We are going through final checks.”
BP, which said that the cost of the spill was now about $ 3.5 billion, expects the first relief to reach easily blown-out end of this month, a first step to finally plug the sprayer in the first half of August, as planned.
As several previous attempts have failed to contain the oil, BP is preparing a backup if the lighting fails wells. BP said it was a new, permanent oil-capture system installed by late August or early September.
source:reuters
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