By Bill Holland & Gary Taylor in Washington

July 1 - The US government issued 11 shallow-water drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico from June 8 through June 30, an agency under the Department of the Interior said July 1.

A spokesman for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, formerly the Minerals Management Service, said "approval has been granted for four drilling rigs to spud wells in water depths less than 500 feet" between June 24 and 30, and while two rigs are ready to drill new wells, none have yet been spudded.

The remaining seven permits are revisions to previous ones or for sidetrack drilling through existing well bores.

BOEM did not provide the identity of the new permit holders, but said all 11 permits were issued to operators that meet the more stringent drilling requirements for Gulf wells issued in the wake of BP's Macondo spill.

Those new rules require testing of blowout preventers and the signature of the driller's CEO on company drilling and safety plans.

Industry analysts weighed in earlier July 1 on reports that the US was going to announce new permits have been issued.

"Shallow-water Gulf of Mexico [projects are] getting permits now," Pritchard Capital Partners analysts Brian Uhlmer and Stephen Berman said in a note to clients. Tudor Pickering Holt analysts also said in a client note Thursday that they were seeing "[s]ome signs of progress in shallow waters."

The reports came after Interior Deputy Secretary David Hayes told a House of Representatives subcommittee June 30 that the department soon will begin issuing permits to drill in water depths up to 500 feet.

Shallow-water drilling was never a part of a moratorium the government imposed on Gulf drilling in the wake of the April 20 explosion and fire at the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

The accident led to the massive and continuing oil leak at BP's Macondo well.

The US District Court in New Orleans recently blocked the moratorium, which applied only to wells in water depths of 500 feet or more. Interior hassince appealed the decision to the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"New safety regulations certainly seem doable on part of the industry so [we're] watching/listening for progress in industry obtaining permits," Tudor Pickering Holt said in their client note.

"We believe this bodes well for Gulf of Mexico exploration and production companies and drillers whose operations are primarily in the shallow water," Pritchard's analysts said.