The drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico imposed after the Deepwater Horizon spill may be lifted early, according to reports.

During a presidential panel meeting, Interior Department officials announced that it will be issuing two new drilling regulations next week, leading to speculation that the drilling may be lifted.

The moratorium was imposed as an immediate response to the Deepwater Horizon spill which began in April and became America's largest environmental catastrophe.

President Obama had only recently lifted a 27-year moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf and there were concerns in the energy industry that the new blanket drilling ban would threaten the country's economic recovery.

Despite speculation about a potential return to drilling operations, Michael Bromwich, director of the newly organised Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, told the commission that mobilisation would not be immediate.

"You are not going to see drilling going on the next day or even the next week. I haven't talked to the individual operators. I don't know which are already compliant and which will take time," AOL News quotes him as saying.

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