Chevron gets permission to drill in North Sea

The British government has granted the first consent for new deepwater drilling in U.K. waters since the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The Department for Energy and Climate Change said Friday it has given U.S. company Chevron Corp. permission to begin drilling an exploratory well in waters west of the Shetland isles.

The British government has repeatedly rejected suggestions for a moratorium on deepwater drilling in the North Sea since the BP-operated Macondo well explosion in April that sparked the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.

It argues that regulation in the North Sea is much tougher than in the Gulf of Mexico prior to the BP spill.

Business Week