Gulf of Mexico bounceback seen distant after spill

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Energy companies operating in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico are having trouble getting permits for activities that are allowed under the government's drilling halt, and some do not expect a return to normal for years.

The U.S. government put in place a deepwater drilling moratorium in May following BP Plc's disastrous Macondo well rupture that killed 11 people and caused a mammoth crude oil leak.

The drilling halt is due to end in November, but new safety regulations and increased scrutiny from regulators will likely delay activity more, executives attending the Barclays Capital CEO Energy-Power conference told investors on Thursday.

For one, U.S. oil and gas company Noble Energy Inc said it does not expect to be able to restart its exploration program in the Gulf until later in 2011.

"It will take a long time to get those permits," Chuck Davidson, Noble's chief executive officer, said in remarks broadcast on the Web, noting that permits for activity already allowed under the moratorium were also hard to come by.

Noble had to submit its permit to complete a well at its Galapagos field in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico nine times before it received approval, Davidson said.

And a permit to complete a second well at Galapagos had to be submitted to the government's new Bureau of Ocean Energy Management six times, the executive said.

Alf Thorkildsen, chief executive officer of Norway-listed Seadrill Ltd , told Reuters Insider in an interview that a recovery in the Gulf of Mexico was years away.

"I think within two years' time, we will be back up at more or less the same levels as before the moratorium," he said.

READY, SET, DRILL

Exxon Mobil Corp , the world's largest publicly traded oil company, had its Hadrian project sidelined by the moratorium, but the company said on Thursday it will be ready to resume activity.

"We are continuing to progress development activities so we are ready to proceed when the drilling moratorium is lifted," Andrew Swiger, senior vice president at Exxon, told the Barclays conference.

Along with Hadrian, Exxon also stopped drilling a development well at its Hoover/Diana prospect due to the government's action.

Jim Hackett, chief executive officer of Anadarko Petroleum Corp , told the conference in New York that he believed activity in the region may resume more quickly than people expected, due to a mixture of "politics and practicality."

The world needs the oil and gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico, Hackett said. Still, the Houston company has pulled $100 million in spending earmarked for the Gulf and shifted it to onshore projects.

Anadarko, which owns a 25 percent stake in the Macondo well, will likely not face any liabilities related to that accident, Hackett said.

"Our view is that we don't owe anything," Hackett said.

The executive said he had not seen any media, company or government reports on the accident that changed Anadarko's view of the accident. In June, Anadarko characterized BP's behavior before the blowout as "reckless" and likely represented "gross negligence or willful misconduct.

An internal BP investigation earlier this month tried to downplay its role in the offshore spill.

(Reporting by Anna Driver in Houston; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)