BP cleared to return to the Gulf of Mexico

By ROB DAVIES FOR THE DAILY MAIL
Updated: 17:20 EST, 3 April 2011

BP is poised to resume drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, less than a year after the explosion of its Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 and triggered the worst accidental oil spill in US history.

In a move certain to stoke controversy among US voters, regulators have agreed to let BP resume work on 10 wells that were shut down during a six-month moratorium on drilling in the Gulf.

It came as US firm Transocean - which owned the doomed rig - fanned the flames of fury against big oil firms by paying bonuses based on safety for 2010.

Disaster: 11 workers were killed and 200 million gallons of oil leaked after the Deepwater Horizon well exploded last year

The payouts were handed out despite the fact that it has been named as one of the parties whose actions contributed to the disaster.

In return for being allowed to resume drilling in the Gulf, BP is understood to have vowed to meet stringent safety standards in excess of new legal requirements introduced to tighten up the US regulatory regime in the wake of the disaster.

BP is also thought to have granted regulators dayandnight access to its rigs.

Permission to revisit the scene of last year's disaster is expected to be a prelude to BP getting the green light to start new drilling projects towards the end of the year.

The news, which comes days before the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon blast on April 20, is likely to infuriate environmental groups and those campaigning on behalf of victims of the spill.

But it will provide a shot in the arm for the company, less than a week after it emerged that the US authorities are still considering charging BP employees, including hapless former chief executive Tony Hayward, with manslaughter.

The deal also provides Hawyard's successor, Mississippi-born Bob Dudley, with some much needed respite from the gloom surrounding the firm's troublestrewn attempts to launch a mammoth alliance in Russia with Kremlin-backed oil firm Rosneft.

A tribunal will meet in London today to consider ways to resolve an impasse between the British firm and AAR, the quartet of Russian billionaires who own the other half of joint venture TNK- BP.

BP unveiled the deal to much fanfare in January, telling the market of its plans to swap shares with Rosneft in a 'strategic global alliance' that would see the duo explore Russia's Arctic continental shelf for oil.

But the deal has been on ice since an arbitration panel ruled that TNK-BP had first refusal on any new Russian venture launched by BP.

The two sides are eventually expected to reach a compromise that would allow BP to press ahead with the Rosneft alliance.

TNK-BP would be offered some form of participation, potentially in the shape of a share in revenues from the vast reserves believed to sit under the Arctic ice.