A US judge has ruled against the six-month moratorium that the Obama administration imposed on deepwater drilling over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The order, in a New Orleans federal court, was a blow to the White House which insisted a ban would allow enough time to ensure other exploratory drilling was proceeding safely.
The administration swiftly responded with a promise to appeal against the ruling, which was the oil industry's first challenge to a moratorium that had halted operations of 33 offshore rigs.
A suit was filed by Louisiana-based Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC and was joined by more than a dozen companies involved in offshore drilling operations to reverse the drilling ban imposed by the US Department of Interior.
Judge Martin Feldman granted the drillers' request for a preliminary restraining order that would prevent the ban from taking effect.
‘The Court is unable to divine or fathom a relationship between the findings and the immense scope of the moratorium,’ the judge wrote.
The 20 April explosion of the Transocean Ltd Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 people and has since caused the worst oil spill in US history. The well is majority-owned by BP.
‘The president strongly believes… that continuing to drill at these depths without knowing what happened does not make any sense, and puts the safety of those involved… and the environment in the Gulf at a danger that the president does not believe we can afford right now,’ White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
US-listed shares of Transocean Ltd briefly turned positive after the ruling.
Transocean climbed more than 3% to $55.80 after the news before falling back to a rise of 0.1% at $53.83. Diamond Offshore also briefly jumped more than 5% before trading 1 percent lower at $63.91.
