MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS – The owner of the drilling rig involved in the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico criticized the U.S. government’s six-month ban on deepwater drilling in the area Tuesday.
On the sidelines of an oil conference in London, Transocean Ltd. president Steven Newman said there were things President Barack Obama’s administration “could implement today that would allow the industry to go back to work tomorrow without an arbitrary six-month time limit.”
Transocean owns the Deepwater Horizon rig, which was run by British oil company BP PLC. An April 20 explosion on the rig killed 11 workers and set off the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.