Interior Dept Strengthens Blowout-Prevention Requirements

By Tennille Tracy Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The Interior Dept. is forcing oil and gas operators to outline measures they would take in the event of potential blowouts, representing another attempt by the Obama administration to strengthen drilling practices in the wake of the BP PLC (BP, BP.LN)-leased Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Under a directive issued Friday, the department will force oil and gas operators to outline the impact of potential blowouts, the odds of success for remediation efforts and the methods by which the operators determined their worst-case scenario assumptions. The operators will now have to submit this information when filing for new drilling permits. "The BP oil spill has laid bare fundamental shortcomings in the oil and gas industry's ability to prevent and stop catastrophic blowouts," said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in a statement Friday. The directive reverses another policy, adopted in 2003, that exempted many offshore oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico from submitting certain information about blowout scenarios, according to the department. -By Tennille Tracy, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6619; tennille.tracy@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 18, 2010 17:10 ET (21:10 GMT)