AP EXCLUSIVE: On tour of oil production rigs, Salazar says deepwater drilling ban to continue
ON THE GULF OF MEXICO (AP) — The helicopter passes over the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico — with surprisingly little oil visible on its surface — when out of the sea rises a skyscraper-like structure nearly 350 feet above the waves. The $600 million rig, nearly 100 miles off Louisiana's coast, has a hull larger than a football field and can drill more than 5 miles beneath the ocean floor.
