The British oil company BP has asked the US government for permission to begin drilling for new oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico.
It is the first application since the company's 2010 Macondo well blowout that caused the Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 workers and spilled nearly 800,000 cubic metres of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
BP said in the application that it wants to sink four wells in nearly 6,000 feet of water about 300km off the Louisiana coast.
Al Jazeera's Jesse Mesner Hage reports from Washington.
This is the first application submitted since the Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 workers and spilled nearly 800-thousand cubic metres of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010.
BP's decision to go ahead with the application has caused some anger within the region.
Al Jazeera's Jesse Mesner Hage region.
