BP awarded four permits to drill off the South Australia coast ~ • Minister says BP must show it 'has learned the lessons from Deepwater Horizon' BP has been given its first-ever oil exploration permits off the Australian coast, but the government warned on Monday that the London-based energy group will have to demonstrate higher safety standards than it had applied in the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster before it is allowed to drill. ~ BP holds stakes in the Northwest Shelf and Gorgon natural gas fields in Western Australia state but has never before applied for its own offshore exploration permits in Australia. Resources and energy minister Martin Ferguson announced on Monday that BP has been awarded four of seven offshore exploration permits approved by the government as part of an annual tender process. BP will be allowed to explore to depths exceeding 15,000 feet (4,600 metres) off the coast of South Australia state. The other three permits awarded to Australian companies Woodside Energy, Riverina Energy and Finder No. 4 are off Western Australia. Oil companies are facing increased scrutiny in the United States after an explosion and spill at BP's Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers on 20 April last year and caused massive environmental damage to the US coast. "The permits awarded to BP follow an extensive assessment and due diligence process that examined the technical and financial competence of BP to undertake the proposed work programme in accordance with the stringent requirements of Australian legislation," Ferguson said in a statement. "Additional conditions have also been attached to these permits, emphasising the need for oil field best practice behaviour by the operator," he added. "This reinforces BP's undertaking, given as part of the assessment process, to fully integrate lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon incident into its systems and processes."
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