By Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States' six-month drilling ban "makes sense" to allow time to probe the cause of BP's oil spill, but if the moratorium is extended, companies should move their rigs to search for oil and natural gas in other countries' waters, the head of the International Energy Agency said on Thursday.
BP's oil leak that begin in April prompted the U.S. government to slap a ban on deepwater exploratory and development drilling, which the federal court last week blocked due to concerns over its unjustifiably harsh impact.
The Obama administration will soon issue a revised drilling moratorium that it believes will get around the federal court order.
If the government extends the ban beyond the end of this year, rigs idling in the U.S. should go elsewhere, said Nobuo Tanaka.
"We have to have, clearly, an ample supply of offshore oil and gas," Tanaka told Reuters in an interview.
"If it (the moratorium) is extended to farther into the future, or if there is a total ban ... then it's inevitable that the private sector should move out. Yes, there's no choice."
The IEA is the Paris-based agency set up after the mid-1970s oil embargo to provide energy advice and coordinate policy with 28 industrialized countries.
(Insider: http://link.reuters.com/sun35m)
Tanaka said BP should be held responsible for the oil spill's cleanup costs, but he also wants the company to remain strong enough afterward to search worldwide for oil and gas that the global economy needs.
"BP should be responsible for what it has done. On top of that, certainly we want to have a very strong private energy sector. We need international oil companies who can produce," he said. "If they have made a mistake, they have to rectify that and continue their operation. That's what we want to see happen."
Tanaka said the oil spill "could have been avoided" and "lots of human errors" were to blame. "How much of them (are) the responsibility of BP, we have to wait" until the investigation is finished, he said.
(Reporting by Tom Doggett; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
