HOUSTON (MarketWatch) -- Norwegian oil company Statoil ASA (STO, STO.OS) has gained approval to drill a deep-water well in the Gulf of Mexico, the sixth such approval granted by federal regulators since such operations were halted last year in response to BP PLC's (BP, BP.LN) Deepwater Horizon spill.

The pace of deep-water permits has accelerated since the first such permission was granted to Noble Energy Inc. NBL, +0.35% on Feb. 28. Statoil's permit is third that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement has issued this week.