Publication Name
Reuters India
Author(s)
Ayesha Rascoe and Roberta Rampton
Sixteen days before the first anniversary of the worst oil spill in U.S. history, BP's efforts to resume drilling in the Gulf of Mexico have provoked a predictably fierce response from Washington.
Give it another few months and experts say the British giant will likely once again be drilling in the deep waters offshore Louisiana and Texas, however.
Once public attention moves past the sensitive one-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon blast, which killed 11 workers and sent 4 million of barrels of oil gushing into the water, regulators are likely to have little choice but to grant BP approval to press ahead in the Gulf, where it is still the biggest operator.
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The U.S. government has also been criticized for lax regulation and a cozy relationship with drillers, but has taken steps to correct that, said Marilyn Heiman, director of the Pew Charitable Trust's offshore energy campaign.
"It's really important now that Congress enact some of those reforms" to make them law, Heiman said.
