Oil executives yesterday warned that President Barack Obama’s six-month ban on deepwater drilling would hit world supplies.
The massive oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico and the ban dominated the World National Oil Companies Congress in London – where protesters heckled a BP executive standing in for the oil giant’s chief executive, Tony Hayward.
Transocean president Steven Newman, owner of the destroyed Deepwater Horizon rig that has spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf, claimed the ban – under review by a US federal judge – was unnecessary.
“There are things the administration could implement today that would allow the industry to go back to work tomorrow without an arbitrary six-month time limit,” he said.
Mr Obama’s ban reflects growing unease about oil companies seeking to drill farther out to sea and deeper than ever before. The process is expensive, risky and largely uncharted, highlighted by the April 20 explosion at the BP-operated rig that killed 11 workers and set off the worst oil spill in US history.
But the US moratorium has been challenged in court and a judge will make a decision on it by tomorrow.
Chevron executive Jay Pryor said the US government’s move would “constrain supplies for world energy” and “would also be a step back for energy security”.
BP chief of staff Steve Westwell, who was heckled during a speech in which he stood in for Mr Hayward, said “regulators around the world will obviously want to know what happened” to cause the well blow-out and change their procedures. But he said deepwater drilling is needed.
“The world does need the oil and the energy that is going to have to come from deepwater production going forward,” he said. “Therefore, the regulatory framework must still enable that to be a viable commercial position.”
Mr Hayward pulled out of the conference after criticism for spending Saturday competing in a yacht race.
Mr Westwell was twice interrupted by Greenpeace protesters shouting “We need to end the oil age!”
The hecklers were escorted out by security guards.
Shukri Ghanem, the head of Libya’s National Oil who serves as the North African nation’s de facto oil minister, said he was happy for BP to continue to operate in his country’s territorial waters.
Mr Ghanem, who plans to meet Mr Hayward while in London, said the spill is “a real tragedy, but in a way it’s exaggerated”. He added: “It is unfortunate, but it is an opportunity to be more careful in the future”.
BP signed an exploration and production deal with National Oil – worth at least $900million – in 2007, going back into Libya for the first time in more than 30 years.
Libya’s oil reserves are the ninth largest in the world.
Mr Westwell said Mr Hayward was “genuinely sorry” not to be at the conference, where he had been due to give a key address on the global responsibilities of international oil companies.
“His schedule is under incredible pressure,” Mr Westwell told delegates.
He said Mr Hayward was in London attending to other company matters.
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