Ensco challenges new U.S. oil drilling moratorium

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ensco Plc filed a lawsuit on Tuesday challenging the Obama administration's new deepwater oil drilling moratorium, saying it was mostly the same as the first ban that a U.S. court already put on hold.

The Interior Department "did not analyze the situation anew and with an open mind when deciding to impose the second moratorium," Ensco said in a complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

"Instead, it was a pre-ordained result that was announced on the very same afternoon this court enjoined the first moratorium," Ensco said.

The Obama administration suspended deepwater drilling after a blown-out well owned by BP Plc caused a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

That initial moratorium, barring drilling below 500 feet for six months, was put on hold after U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman found the order too broad, arbitrary and inadequately justified.

That same day, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he would issue a new moratorium. The Obama administration has defended the need for suspending deepwater drilling as necessary to provide time to investigate the cause of the BP disaster and issue new safety regulations.

The Interior Department issued the new moratorium on July 12 that barred drilling through November 30 on new wells that use subsea or surface blowout preventers similar to the one used on the BP well.

The administration said the suspension could be lifted once drillers provide more evidence of their ability to prevent a blowout and respond adequately should another deepwater catastrophe occur, and detail what assets are available to contain a second spill should it occur.

Amid the legal uncertainty surrounding drilling in U.S. waters, some companies have begun moving their drilling rigs and employees elsewhere to work.

Ensco asked the court to declare the new moratorium unlawful and order the Interior Department to process and approve applications for permits to drill.

The Obama administration's "unlawful actions have wreaked havoc upon the entire offshore oil service industry in the Gulf of Mexico -- both deepwater and shallow water," Enscoe said.

Only two of London-based Ensco's eight rigs now under contract in the Gulf of Mexico are deepwater drillers, but a newly built deepwater rig is set to start work in the region next month.

(Additional reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco; Editing by Eric Beech)