White House Decision On Drilling Should Come In Few Days

1st Jul 2010 19:13

By Jared A. Favole Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Thursday said a decision should come in a few days on whether the government will lift a six-month deepwater-drilling moratorium imposed after the disastrous BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) oil spill. Gibbs, speaking at a daily briefing with reporters, said the decision will come from the Department of Interior. He didn't hint at what the decision would be. The six-month ban is tangled in court and has raised concerns in the oil industry and states that rely on the sector that the moratorium was further imperiling the economy along the Gulf of Mexico. Executives from an array of oil companies met with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar earlier in the week to push for lifting the ban. The moratorium has been in place since late May when President Barack Obama announced that he wanted a ban on new exploratory wells while a presidential commission studied how to ensure that offshore drilling could be made safer. The six-month ban had the effect of suspending activity at all 33 rigs developing exploratory wells in deep water. -By Jared A. Favole, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9256; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 01, 2010 14:13 ET (18:13 GMT)