BP chairman eyes drilling in Gulf of Mexico

'It's difficult to speculate on but I think it isn't far away,' Carl-Henric Svanberg said, a year after the largest U.S. man-made environmental disaster.

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Agence France-Presse

Tue, Jun 21 2011 at 1:31 PM

Related Topics:

Offshore Drilling, Gulf Oil Spill, Oil & Gas

SPILL: The BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, killing 11 workers and sending 4.9 million barrels of oil gushing into the Gulf over a three-month period, wreaking havoc on the region's environment and econ

British oil giant BP hopes to soon be able to operate again in the Gulf of Mexico, its chairman was quoted as saying Tuesday.

"It's difficult to speculate on but I think it isn't far away," Carl-Henric Svanberg told reporters on the sideline of an International Association for Energy Economics in Stockholm, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

The BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, killing 11 workers and sending some 4.9 million barrels of oil gushing into the Gulf over a three-month period, wreaking havoc on the region's environment and economy.

Following the spill, the largest ever manmade environmental disaster in the United States, Washington imposed a moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, which it lifted in October.

"We are confident that we aren't treated differently there," Svanberg said Tuesday.

The chairman's comments came a day after BP announced it had struck a deal with oil services company Weatherford International, to settle potential claims between them linked to the Deepwater Horizon accident.

An anonymous trader quoted by Dow Jones Newswires said Tuesday's comments were "just another piece of the jigsaw."

"This is more good news for a beleaguered BP share price," another trader was quoted as saying.

BP shares rallied 3.65 percent to 445.2 pence in late afternoon trade on London's FTSE 100 index of leading companies, which was 1.29 percent higher at 5,766.97 points.

MNN - Mother Nature Network

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