Interior Official Defends Recent Pace Of Drill Permitting

The head of the federal agency tasked with regulating the oil and gas industry told lawmakers Tuesday that the government has re-committed itself to supporting offshore energy production.

In testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Michael Bromwich, appointed by President Obama last year to take over the Minerals Management Service, said that oil companies are currently receiving drill permits at a quicker pace than some have alleged.

“We’ve actually permitted unique deepwater wells on the average of about once every four to five business days,” he said. “That’s not a significantly slower pace than has historically been the case.”

Bromwich took over MMS last year in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil spill, which in total killed 11 rig employees and spewed roughly five million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for a period of nearly five months. With Bromwich aboard, MMS underwent a restructuring amidst evidence that it had failed to do its job, and became the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

At the time of his appointment, Bromwich, a litigator by trade, was known for turning around troubled organizations. The White House said that his role at BOEMRE would be ensuring “that there is no conflict of interest, real or perceived, in oil industry oversight.”

As the spill slowly became a national crisis, President Obama announced the commencement of a temporary moratorium on deep and shallow water drilling in the Gulf and other offshore areas. Though the order was lifted in October, lawmakers and drilling advocates have argued that new rules and safety standards imposed by the administration have bogged down the pace of permitting, thereby hampering energy production. During this morning’s hearing, which was intended to review four pieces of pending legislation that would boost domestic production in the Outer Continental Shelf, Bromwich refuted claims that his agency has dragged its feet on awarding new permits.

“The notion that it’s taken us a very long time to permit deepwater applications is really not true.”

Bromwich said that 14 new deepwater permits have been granted to energy producers since this February, when newly-mandated spill containment capabilities were reached. Moreover, Bromwich said that roughly six shallow-water permits have been awarded on average each month since the moratorium expired — a pace not too far below the historical average of eight per month.

“That’s not a huge difference,” he said. “And if you think about the additional safety requirements that are required of the operators…it’s not a major discrepancy.”

Though today’s hearing was scheduled weeks ago, it coincided with a new push by Obama, who has been criticized heavily for not responding sufficiently to record high gas prices, to strengthen his record on drilling. In his weekly address this past weekend, the President announced that he has instructed Interior Secretary Ken Salazar “to conduct annual lease sales in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, while respecting sensitive areas, and to speed up the evaluation of oil and gas resources in the mid and south Atlantic.”

“We plan to lease new areas in the Gulf of Mexico as well, and work to create new incentives for industry to develop their unused leases both on and offshore,” Obama said. So far, the move has been welcomed by several lawmakers, even Republicans such as Sen. Lisa Murkowksi (Alaska), who today praised the decision.