A federal judge in New Orleans on June 22 blocked the US government's 6-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and a White House spokesman said the Obama administration plans to appeal.
US District Judge Martin Feldman issued a preliminary injunction against the moratorium in a civil case filed by Hornbeck Offshore Services of Covington, La., and some 30 other service companies against US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.
Some plaintiffs provide drilling services while other plaintiffs ferry workers and supplies to offshore rigs.
Feldman made his ruling just a day after he heard arguments in the case in New Orleans.
"Plaintiffs will incur immediate and irreparable harm to business…should the court decline to grant the application for the relief requested," Feldman said. Federal officials were "immediately prohibited from enforcing the moratorium" pending a full trial on the merits of the case, Feldman said.
But details were not immediately available on when industry expected that rigs might resume drilling.
The American Petroleum Institute issued a news release praising Feldman's ruling.
"With this ruling, our industry and its people can get back to work to provide Americans with the energy they need, and do it safely and without harming the environment," API said.
Obama's administration had halted approval of new permits for deepwater drilling and also suspended drilling of 33 exploration wells pending completion of investigations into the cause of the Macondo well blowout and resulting explosion and fire on Transocean Ltd.'s Deepwater Horizon semisubmersible drilling rig on Apr. 20.
Hornbeck Offshore and other service companies said there was no proof that other deepwater operations pose a threat.
A 1-month moratorium initially was announced May 6, and on May 27, Obama extended the moratorium for 6 months.
API reacts
API said, "The administration acted appropriately in its immediate steps to inspect every rig in the gulf following the Deepwater Horizon explosion…. In addition, the oil and natural gas industry took immediate steps to review practices and equipment to ensure safety and environmental protection, through the formation of two industry-wide task forces."
The task forces provided important insights to DOI. The first two task forces and two recently created ones are working to find ways to improve the safety of offshore operations, subsea well control, and oil spill response efforts, API said.
"The moratorium was an initial reaction to concerns about the safety of offshore oil and natural gas operations," API said. "However, an extended moratorium would have a tremendous impact on the nation's energy security—and cause significant harm to the region of the country that was already suffering from the spill—without raising safety or improving industry procedures."
Salazar defends moratorium
Salazar said the 6-month moratorium that he imposed on May 27 was justified and announced that his department would appeal the judge's order to block it.
"We see clear evidence every day, as oil spills from BP's well, of the need for a pause on deepwater drilling," he said.
Salazar said he plans to issue a new order "in the coming days that eliminates any doubt that a moratorium is needed, appropriate, and within our authorities."
Members of Louisiana's congressional delegation applauded the judge's decision.
"I strongly urge the Obama administration not to appeal his ruling," said US Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, a Democrat. "The administration should instead implement the recommendations that I and numerous other leaders and experts from the Gulf Coast have proposed–all of which would result in demonstrably safer offshore practices without the devastating impact of this blanket moratorium on new drilling."
The state's other US senator, Republican David Vitter, applauded Feldman's decision, which he said "recognizes that the president's powers are certainly not unlimited and that this moratorium is wreaking havoc on jobs in Louisiana."
Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.), who is running to unseat Vitter in November, said the ruling was encouraging news for tens of thousands of Louisianans whose jobs depend on the oil and gas industry. "But as long as the administration is appealing the decision, the future of energy production in the gulf remains unclear," he said.
Another US House member from Louisiana, Bill Cassidy (R), said Feldman's ruling realigns federal policy with the findings of independent scientists and engineers who objected to the moratorium. Cassidy, who recently introduced legislation to repeal the moratorium, said his bill has 46 cosponsors, including all of Louisiana's House members.
The decision
In his decision, Feldman noted that Salazar, in the executive summary of his May 27 report to US President Barack Obama, said his recommendations for a 6-month halt to deepwater drilling in the gulf "have been peer-reviewed by seven experts identified by the National Academy of Engineering."
But five of the National Academy of Engineering experts and three others subsequently stated publicly that they did not agree with a 6-month blanket moratorium, the decision continued. "They envisioned a more limited kind of moratorium, but a blanket moratorium was added after final review, they complain, and was never agreed to by them," it said.
The draft the experts reviewed, for example, recommended a moratorium for wells in more than 1,000 ft of water—not 500 ft, as Salazar's order stated—to allow for implementation of suggested safety measures, Feldman wrote in his ruling.
He said Salazar's report seems to define deep water as 1,000 ft or more and doesn't mention a 500-ft depth. Yet the notice to lessees "suddenly defines deepwater' as more than 500 ft," the order said.
"While the implementation of regulations and a new culture of safety are supportable by the report and the documents presented, the blanket moratorium, with no parameters, seems to assume that because one rig failed and although no one yet fully knows why, all companies and rigs drilling new wells over 500 ft also universally present an imminent danger," the judge wrote in his ruling.
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