BP said it would begin drilling off the coast of Libya by September 2010
amid U.S. criticism over the company's lobbying to release a Libyan
intelligence agent convicted of the bombing of an American airliner in 1988.
The company has been warned by Congress that this could harm BP's prospects to
expand business in the United States.
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"We want a moratorium on the drilling [by BP] off Libya's coast," Sen.
Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, said. "We believe BP should
not be allowed to drill until we have resolution of this."
The announcement came amid rising sentiment against BP, blamed for the
massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico in May 2010. BP has also acknowledged that it
lobbied for the release of the Libyan bomber, Abdul Baset Al Megrahi in 2009.
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