While many companies may take a wait-and-see approach to renewed deepwater Gulf operations in the wake of a court decision to lift the six-month moratorium, the ruling was an important step in getting thousands of employees closer to returning to work providing Americans with the energy they need.
Following the ruling, in which U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman called the federal decision to stop deepwater drilling “invalid,” the White House said they would immediately appeal and late yesterday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar promised to issue a new ban.
While the administration acted appropriately to immediately inspect every Gulf rig following the Deepwater Horizon incident, an extended moratorium would have a tremendous impact on the nation’s energy security—and as others noted, hurt the economies of Gulf Coast communities.
Our industry is redoubling our commitment to safety. Where improvements can be made, we’ll make them; and we’ll continue to find ways to raise the bar higher.
To that end, our industry has formed two new task forces to address subsea well control and oil spill response. The new task forces will develop findings and recommendations to improve capabilities and technologies, and will share their findings with the government. Their work, and the government’s various reviews of the incident, will help ensure that U.S. deepwater exploration and production is the safest and cleanest in the world.
The industry’s commitment to safety and environmental protection is real and strong, but the Gulf tragedy clearly demonstrates it must improve. All of us realize we must do better to provide the energy our nation needs, and we will.
Sincerely,
Jack N. Gerard
President & CEO
API
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment