Libya will allow BP to begin drilling in its offshore deepwater region next month, despite the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, AP quoted the head of Libya's National Oil Co. as saying on Sunday. Shokri Ghanem, who serves as Libya's de facto oil minister, said the April explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, and the subsequent spill, were آ«tragic,آ» but the oil industry is also moving into آ«new frontiers.آ»
آ«An accident will not stop us from digging in this new frontier,آ» Ghanem said. آ«Life must go on, but we will learn a lot of lessons.آ»
Ghanem's comments are the latest confirmation by the OPEC nation that it was planning to honor the contract it signed with BP in 2007 to drill in the Libyan deepwater region of the Mediterranean Sea.
