Details

Published: October 26 2011

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- BP received a permit Wednesday to drill an oil well 192 miles off Louisiana, the first given the British company by the U.S. government since last year's spill.

The well in the Gulf of Mexico's Kaskida field is to be under 6,034 of water, 1,000 feet deeper than the Macondo well, which blew out in April 2010, the Houston Chronicle reported. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement permit allows drilling to begin immediately.

An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and set off the world's worst-ever off-shore oil spill. By the time the well was capped, thousands of barrels a day had been spilling into the gulf for three months.

BP has agreed to voluntary measures in addition to more stringent regulations adopted after the Macondo spill. Those include a double set of pipe-cutting shear rams on the blowout preventer.

In a statement, the company called the permit "another milestone in our steady return to safely drilling in the Gulf of Mexico."