US grants drill permit
Published:Tuesday | March 1, 2011 | 1:45 PM
The US has granted the first new permit for deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico since last year's spill at a British Petroleum, BP,-owned oil well.
The April blast aboard BP's Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 people and caused one of the worst oil spills in history.
In a statement, a US official said Noble Energy had demonstrated it could safely drill a well 70 miles off the Louisiana coast.
The well is situated 6,500 feet under the Gulf of Mexico.
The US had approved 37 permits for shallow water drilling since new safety measures were put in place in June.
Noble Energy, of Houston, Texas, says previous work on the well had been suspended in June when the US put a moratorium on drilling in waters deeper than 500 feet.
The moratorium on deepwater exploration was lifted in October.