Government: Drilling moratorium vital to prevent future blowouts, spills in Gulf of Mexico

Government: Drilling moratorium vital to safety

NEW ORLEANS — The federal government claims the deepwater drilling ban in the Gulf of Mexico is vital to avoid more well blowouts and oil spills, rejecting the argument from some offshore service companies that their business will be harmed.

The contention, entered in court records late Thursday, is at the heart of the Interior Department’s answer to a federal lawsuit challenging the legality of the six-month moratorium filed by a group of offshore service companies June 9.

U.S. District Judge Martin L.C. Feldman is scheduled Monday to hear a motion to nullify the moratorium at least temporarily.

The companies, led by Covington, La.-based Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc., contend the Interior Department had no facts to justify the ban and ran afoul of federal law governing offshore lease development by failing to balance resource development and environmental protection.

The suit comes as many industry officials warn a six-month moratorium will mean a much-longer slowdown in the Gulf as deepwater rigs — some of which command prices as high as $750,000 a day — leave the region to take long-term contracts in foreign markets, costing the Gulf thousands of jobs.

But in its response, the Interior Department said the moratorium is needed as attempts to stop the leak and clean the Gulf continue and as new safety standards are developed.

“A second deepwater blowout could overwhelm the efforts to respond to the current disaster,” the Interior Department said.

The response also said adequate facts were present to justify Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s May 27 report on safety measures in the Gulf, which led to the moratorium.

The government filing also challenged contentions the moratorium will lead to long-term economic harm. Although 33 deepwater drilling sites were affected, there are still 3,600 oil and natural gas production platforms in the Gulf, the government pointed out.

“It is clear that plaintiffs are not solely dependent on the 33 affected operating drilling platforms to stay in business for the next six months, nor does the ‘viability of the entire Gulf of Mexico deepwater industry solely on those 33 drilling wells,’” the government response said.

“The industry for Gulf of Mexico oil production is not as fragile as plaintiffs would have this court believe,” the filing said.