Mexico

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Monday issued a new moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) that, unlike the initial moratorium, gives a date-certain for when it would end — Nov. 30.

A continuing heat wave in the East and a tropical depression in the western Gulf of Mexico (GOM) were essentially insignificant to the cash market Thursday. It preferred to follow the previous day’s futures drop of 11.7 cents in falling at nearly all points.

As the Justice Department went to court Thursday to reinstate the six-month moratorium on deepwater oil and natural gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), a Washington, DC-based advocacy group reported that the three Fifth Circuit judges assigned to the case have close ties to the industry.

The Bureau of Land Management’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico has begun a process to revise and update its Resource Management Plan (RMP) for public lands in Eddy, Lea and southwestern Chaves counties, the federal agency said Friday.

BP plc and other operators involved in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) rig explosion have been asked by the Civil Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to inform U.S. officials of “any significant corporate actions related to the organization, structure and financial position…” going forward.

Chevron Corp. has declared a force majeure on a Hercules Offshore jackup rig operating in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) — just one day after Apache Corp. declared a force majeure on a Rowan Cos Inc. jackup rig.

The judge in New Orleans who granted a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of the federal government’s six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico owned shares of Transocean Ltd. and other offshore companies.

BP plc has removed the cap that was collecting some of the oil gushing from its busted Macondo well a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) said Wednesday.

Late Friday Anadarko Petroleum Corp. — a 25% partner with BP plc in the disastrous Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) — pointed the finger directly at its London-based partner and assigned blame for the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. BP fired back that it intends to continue doing its part, but noted that its partners also have “obligations.”