BP plc has received preliminary approval from federal regulators to drill four deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico’s (GOM) Keathley Canyon, its first offshore permit approval since the Macondo well blowout in April 2010.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) approved the 214-page blueprint last Friday. BP still needs approval for the project by BOEM’s sister arm, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).

The application indicated that BP Exploration & Production Co. wants to drill the wells in about 6,000 feet of water in Keathley Canyon blocks 292 and 336, which are about 190 miles south of Louisiana. BP acquired the leases in the region in 1997 and 2003. No “new or unusual technology” is expected to be used in the drilling process, BP stated.

BP has demonstrated in its supplemental exploration plan for the Kaskida prospect that it would be able to comply with the more stringent drilling standards adopted following the offshore oil spill last year, said BOEM Director Tommy Beaudreau.

“Our review of BP’s plan included verification of BP’s compliance with the heightened standards that all deepwater activities must meet,” he said.

Earlier this month BSEE Director Michael Bromwich said that after some consideration federal regulators had decided that BP would be allowed to bid in December in the first post-Macondo lease auction in the GOM (see Daily GPI, Oct. 14).

Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), who is the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, called the BOEM permit approval premature. Markey, who also objects to BP being allowed to participate in the December lease sale, noted that BP “hasn’t paid the fines they owe for their spill, yet BP is being given back the keys to drill in the Gulf.”

The Department of Justice this month issued its first citations to BP, as well as contractors Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton Co. for their roles in the tragic spill. Fines are expected to be assessed.

While this is BP’s first exploration plan to be approved since the spill, U.S. officials have already approved more than 40 plans by other operators since more stringent offshore drilling rules were enacted last year.

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