WASHINGTON — The federal government Monday told Noble Energy it could resume a deep-water drilling project halted last year by the Obama administration’s moratorium — the first work of its kind to be approved since that ban was lifted in October.
Until Monday, federal regulators had not allowed any offshore drilling that had been off limits under the administration’s five-month ban against certain kinds of deep-water exploration following the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Michael Bromwich, the head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which issued the approval, said the permit “represents a significant milestone for us and for the offshore oil-and- gas industry.”
But offshore-drilling advocates doubted the move would unleash a flood of permits, because the project approved Monday was one of 16 underway when the ban was imposed. Hearst Newspapers
