Deepwater drilling for oil off the coast of the United States is ready to begin again now that the federal agency that regulates the work has approved the first permit since a BP-owned well polluted the Gulf of Mexico region last year. In announcing the permit’s issuance, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management made a point of stating that the majority owner of the new well was Noble Energy.

 

But according to Reuters, the press release left out the fact that a major-minority owner is none other than BP, which controls a 46.5% share of the well.

 

Instead, the bureau emphasized that the decision to issue a permit represented “an important step towards safely developing deepwater energy supplies offshore.”

 

Federal regulators claim two new safety systems now are available for companies to ensure that an undersea blowout does not go out of control, like the April 2010 one did.

 

The first well to be reactivated is the Santiago well in the Mississippi Canyon about 70 miles south of Louisiana.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

First Deepwater Drilling Permit Since BP Spill Goes to ... a Well Co-Owned by BP (by Marian Wang, ProPublica)

Who Owns BP? Biggest Shareholder is JPMorgan Chase (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)