BHP Billiton Wins Second Post-Spill Deepwater Gulf Permit

BHP Billiton BHP, the world's largest mining company, was awarded the second permit to drill in deepwater locations in the Gulf of Mexico following last year's oil spill, the largest ever to be seen in the U.S.

Following the spill, which was caused by the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20, 2010, the Obama Administration imposed a moratorium on deepwater drilling. While that ban was lifted in October, no new drilling permits for deepwater activities were issued until Noble Energy NBL was awarded one in late February.

The Deepwater Horizon rig was owned by Transocean RIG, the world's largest provider of offshore drilling services, and operated by BP BP, Europe's second-largest oil company.

BHP will be allowed to resume work it had to stop before the spill. The company is among the most active in the Gulf. BHP said on Feb. 15 that the lack of permits in the Gulf “was a major constraint on our business” and resulted in deferring “drilling of high volume production wells," Bloomberg News reported.