US | BP oil spill Guess Who's Restarting Deepwater Drilling? BP cuts deal with US to restart 10 wells by July By Polly Davis Doig Posted Apr 3, 2011 1:32 PM CDT Copied In this April 21, 2010, aerial photo, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig is seen burning. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File) What with Transocean today patting itself on the back for its "best year in safety performance in our company's history," it only follows that BP will return to deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico this summer. The oil giant has cut a deal with the US government that will allow it to drill 10 wells that were under way when the Deepwater Horizon blew last year—in exchange, of course, for stricter regulation. US regulators will have 24-hour access to drilling rigs, reports MSNBC via the Financial Times (subscription only), and BP has agreed to forgo new exploratory drilling. Environmentalists are, predictably, less than thrilled: “Despite going through the near-death experience of the Macondo well in the US, BP continues to pursue high-risk opportunities. Strategically, the future BP seems to be doing what the old BP did,”a Greenpeace rep tells the FT. Read These Next Actor Michael Madsen is dead at 67. Soccer star Diogo Jota is killed in a car crash. A teen pilot landed on his 7th continent and immediately got detained. Who added bill's proposed tax on clean energy? No one knows. Report an error