The district judge of New Orleans is likely to announce his verdict on oil industry’s challenge to the Obama administration’s six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after the worst oil spill in US history.

The district judge Martin Feldman heard opening statements of both sides on Monday in a case. The lawsuit is the first case seeking to reverse 28 May’s presidential decree imposing moratorium, which the companies say will force job cuts in the labour force. The ban has caused shutdown of 33 deepwater drilling rigs.

President Barack Obama imposed the six-month ban after an explosion aboard an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico on 20 April which killed 11 workers and ruptured a well owned by energy giant BP, unleashing millions of gallons of crude into the ocean.

The spill, now in its 63rd day, has soiled the coastline of four US states threatening tourism and fishing industries; seeped into ecologically sensitive wetlands and marshes; battered BP’s image; and tested President Barack Obama, who has come under fire over his handling of the crisis.                                                                                                                                                                    Agencies

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