Gulf wrestles with drilling

WASHINGTON -- What now for the Gulf?

News of another oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico, so soon after the BP oil spill, has set off a wave of anxiety along the Gulf Coast and prompted calls for the government to extend its six-month ban on deepwater drilling.

Just when it seemed the Obama administration might be ready to lift the unpopular ban, the fire raises new questions about the dangers of offshore drilling, leaving the industry wondering when it can get back to work.

"Anything that casts any kind of shadow on the industry right now certainly complicates lifting the moratorium," said Bruce Bullock, director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University in Texas. "It makes it difficult to continue to say that [the BP spill] is an aberration."

But while initial reports were frightening, Bullock and other experts said Thursday's platform fire won't likely have a lasting effect.

Unlike the April explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig - which killed 11 people and led to the largest offshore oil spill in the nation's history - the fire at the Mariner Energy Inc. platform 100 miles south of Louisiana killed no one and sent no crude gushing into the water.

"There's over 100 fires in the Gulf in a given year. Were it not for the BP incident, this would receive very little coverage," Bullock said.

Even so, environmental groups and some Democratic lawmakers rushed to denounce offshore drilling and urged the Obama administration to extend the six-month deepwater ban to shallow water as well. The current ban has shut down drilling at 33 ocean wells, but there still are more than 7,300 active leases in the Gulf of Mexico, 58 percent of them in deep waters, according to the American Petroleum Institute.

About 3,400 platforms operate in the Gulf, pumping about a third of America's domestic oil.

Ban expires Nov. 30

The latest fire "is another reminder that drilling accidents happen all too frequently," said Jacqueline Savitz of the environmental group Oceana. "We cannot afford to lose any more human lives, nor can we tolerate further damage to the Gulf and its irreplaceable ocean ecosystems."

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a leading critic of BP, said the fire highlights the risks associated with offshore drilling. Lawmakers "have a duty to ... all oil workers to make sure the oil industry's drilling practices are safe and sound," Markey said.

The Interior Department has said it is considering lifting the ban for certain categories of rigs before the expiration Nov. 30. But after Thursday's accident, the department may hesitate to act.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Friday the platform fire appeared to be an industrial accident.

"At this point, it doesn't seem like there was any oil that was released out, so the oil pollution is not an issue, and it's not another Deepwater Horizon issue," Salazar said.