US lets some halted deep-water drilling resume

US officials said the 13 companies must comply with new policies and rules before resuming activity at 16 wells. All but three are exploratory wells — the same type BP was drilling when the Deepwater Horizon rig blew out on April 20, killing 11 workers and setting off the worst offshore oil spill in US history.

“For those companies that were in the midst of operations at the time of the deep-water suspensions [last spring], today’s notification is a significant step toward resuming their permitted activity,’’ said Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement.

The decision is a victory for the drilling companies, which in the past had routinely won broad waivers from rules requiring detailed environmental studies. After the BP disaster, the Obama administration pledged it would require companies to complete environmental reviews before being allowed to drill for oil.

The administration has been under heavy pressure from the oil industry, state leaders, and congressional Republicans to speed up drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, which has come to a near halt since last spring.

The delay is hurting big oil companies such as Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, which have billions of dollars in investments tied up in gulf projects that are on hold. Smaller operators such as ATP Oil & Gas Corp., Murphy Exploration & Production Co.-USA, and Noble Energy Inc., also have been affected. A federal report said the moratorium probably caused a temporary loss of 8,000 to 12,000 jobs in the gulf region.

Bromwich and other officials stressed that the policy announced yesterday was not a reversal of its previous plans not to grant waivers known as categorical exclusions for deep-water projects.

Instead officials characterized the action as a sort of grandfather clause that applies only to companies that had begun drilling before the spill.