The federal government on Wednesday gave BP approval to launch its first deep-water drilling since the lethal blowout of its Macondo well a year and a half ago.

Under the permit issued by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the British oil giant immediately can begin drilling at its Kaskida field about 192 miles off the Louisiana coast.

Although BP has partnered with other firms on offshore work since the Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 people and triggered the nation's worst oil spill, this is the first time it is being allowed back in the water as the lead operator of an offshore drilling project.

The permit is a milestone for BP and the entire offshore drilling industry, which still is recovering from last year's spill and a subsequent moratorium on some deep-water exploration, said Sean Shafer, a senior market analyst with Sugar Land-based Quest Offshore Resources.

“If the Gulf is going to get back to where it is before ... it'd be hard to do it without BP being a part of that,” Shafer said, noting that BP is the largest producer in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP plans to drill the newly approved well in 6,034 feet of water — about 1,000 feet deeper than its doomed Macondo project. Drilling could begin within days using Seadrill's 3-year-old West Sirius semisubmersible rig.

As part of its permit approval, BP vowed to abide by new safety and environmental mandates imposed since last year's spill, as well as a suite of voluntary performance standards. Those safeguards go beyond federal requirements and include backup emergency equipment and engineer-witnessed testing of cement used in wells.

For instance, BP will use a second set of pipe-cutting shear rams on the blowout preventer that will be used at the new well, doubling opportunities for the device to successfully slash through drill pipe and to trap flowing gas and oil underground in case of an emergency. Cameron International, the same Houston-based company that manufactured the blowout preventer used at the Macondo well, built the one installed on the West Sirius rig.

But some Democratic lawmakers and environmentalists dismissed BP's plans as too much too soon. The top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee that oversees offshore drilling, Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, suggested BP should be barred from drilling until it has paid oil spill penalties under the Clean Water Act and federal regulations.

“The fact that BP is getting a permit to drill without yet paying a single cent in fines is a disappointment, and does not serve as an effective lesson of deterrence for oil and gas companies,” Markey said.