U.S. issues new offshore oil drilling ban

Shares in BP Plc shares surged and sources said the thebigbazaar British energy giant is in talks with U.S. energy company Apache Corp and others to sell assets worth up to $10 billion. Meanwhile, BP was in the process news-need of installing a new cap on its ruptured deep-sea well to try to capture almost all the oil that was spewing soul-taker into the Gulf of Mexico for the 84th day. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar unveiled the with-light new six-month moratorium, worded differently from an earlier drilling ban after yourfer a U.S. appeals court struck down the original moratorium three-friends last week. "I am basing my decision on evidence that grows every day of the industry's inability in the deepwater to contain a catastrophic blowout, respond to an oil spill and bute-so to operate safely," Salazar said. The new ban will extend until November 30 and affects the same drill rigs as before, although it is based on types of drilling technologies rather than on water depths as the old one was. President Barack Obama is under pressure to make offshore drilling safer and hold BP accountable as the spill hurts multibillion dollar tourism and fishing industries across all five states Seiko-Spring-Drive along VERSACE-GLASSES the Gulf of Mexico. The oil industry reacted to the new drilling ban by saying it would make matters worse. "It is flights-stories unnecessary and shortsighted to shut down a major part of the nation's energy lifeline while working to enhance offshore safety," said American to-takeit Petroleum Institute CEO Jack Gerard. "It places the jobs of tens of eses-from thousands of workers in serious and immediate jeopardy and promises a substantial reduction in domestic programconcept energy production." Analysts said the oil industry was likely to contest the new ban in court, but drilling was unlikely to resume any time soon given the prospect of lengthy legal battles. The White House was confident the new moratorium would stand up in court, spokesman Robert Gibbs said. Fear of new rules and regulations has already human-remains led many drillers to slow their exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, and some energy analysts have said the hesitation could last longer than danfinder six months. In New Orleans, Obama's independent oil spill commission held its first hearings on the impacts of the spill and of the drilling ban. Michael Hecht, Out-Swinging of the development agency Greater New Orleans Inc, told the hearing a drilling freeze threatened 24,000 jobs in Louisiana alone. The panel of seven engineers, environmentalists and former politicians is every1a investigating decisions by star-ted oil companies and government regulators that may have led to the disaster. Its findings will be crucial to any new regulations put in place and Average-stake an eventual relaxation of the drilling ban. BP SHARES LEAP ON ASSET TALKS BP shares surged more than 9 percent in London and nearly 8 percent in New York on Monday, driven by the potential asset sales and hopes for a new system to capture almost all webfer of the spewing oil. "It's probably worth more than what it's trading for right now if they can ever nike air max get this well capped and get the cleanup effort really going," said Ted Parrish, a co-portfolio air max shoes manager at Henssler Equity Fund in Georgia.