A federal court ruled Monday to postpone vacating a federal environmental analysis of oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after oil companies argued that the decision threatened to shut down regional production and raise oil prices for consumers.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland’s ruling on Monday is in response to oil companies appealing the court’s earlier order, made at the behest of environmental groups, to vacate the National Marine Fisheries Service’s 2020 biological opinion on offshore oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. 

The NMFS opinion is a required analysis that examines whether a proposed action, such as oil drilling, would endanger species and their habitat. Oil drilling cannot occur without an issued biological opinion.

In August, the district court ruled in favor of several environmental groups that argued that NMFS’s opinion underestimated the environmental effects of oil drilling. The court ruled to vacate the analysis as of December 2024, ordering the agency to produce a new opinion the same month.

The American Petroleum Institute, the EnerGeo Alliance, the National Ocean Industries Association, and Chevron USA had said the order risked “current and future U.S. energy supply.” The industry argued that insufficient time for NMFS to develop a new assessment could delay operations and risk workers’ safety.

However, the oil companies won the right to delay the order as the court ruled that the opinion would remain in place until May. 

NOIA President Erik Milito said: “This ruling is crucial for maintaining our energy security, affordability, and national security, all of which depend on the uninterrupted supply of oil and gas from the Gulf of Mexico.” 

“It has become readily apparent to elected officials on both sides of the aisle that an impairment of production from the Gulf of Mexico could lead to a cascading effect throughout the American economy, delivering an unwelcome blow to consumers still reeling from inflationary impacts,” Milito added.