As oil gushed from BP’s ruptured well five years ago and public outrage built by the day, the Obama administration issued a six-month moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. When the well was finally capped after nearly three months, political and industry pressure mounted on the White House to lift the ban, which it did about a month earlier than planned.
Since then, The Associated Press reports oil and gas drilling in the Gulf has bounced back strongly, with the number of deep-water drilling rigs actually rising from 35 to an estimated 48. Drillers are pushing into even deeper water and greater depths below the seafloor to reach reservoirs considered riskier than BP’s Macondo field, the source of the nation’s worst offshore spill.
Elsewhere, the Obama administration has pushed to expand offshore drilling to waters in Alaska and along the Atlantic coast. In January, the Interior Department unveiled a plan to open drilling next year in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas on the Arctic coast of Alaska and off the coast between Maryland and Florida.
The AP has a full recap of all that has changed in the offshore drilling industry in the five years since BP’s April 20, 2010, Macondo catastrophe, including changes in drilling technology, industry oversight, safety, spill prevention and response. To mark today’s fifth anniversary of the rig explosion and subsequent oil spill, The AP also has a feature on the families of some the 11 men who lost their lives in the disaster and how they’ve united to preserve the memory of their loved ones and move beyond the tragedy.
