While drilling rig counts in the Gulf of Mexico have returned to the levels they were at before the BP PLC oil spill, permitting delays and pending regulations continue to stifle new investments, according to a new study from Southern Methodist University.

While rig numbers are the same today as they were in early 2010, far fewer are actively drilling, Baker Hughes Inc. said, according to the report released today.

In addition, operators today are waiting an average of more than 200 days for approval of exploration plans, roughly four times as long as the waits before the Gulf spill. The delays are largely due to the longer time required for plans to be "deemed submitted" -- which triggers a 30-day deadline for a decision -- the report found.

"The administration may be technically correct in claiming the waiting period after a permit has been deemed submitted has returned to pre-Macondo levels," the report said. "But in reality, the claim masks significant underlying delays that need to be addressed."

In addition, the report said the Obama administration has failed to issue drilling permits far enough in advance to allow operators to secure long-term contracts with rigs, which cost upward of half a million dollars a day to lease.

With 18 rigs currently active in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, industry needs regulators to approve at least 54 yet-to-be-drilled permits to ensure a rig can move to the next job, the report said. With only six unused permits in the inventory, some rigs could be idled or move to other locations around the globe, the report added.

"If the U.S. is to generate the optimal level of energy production from this critical basin, the regulatory regime must provide an accommodating climate for investment in safe and environmentally sound operations rather than hinder the operators' ability to bring these highly sophisticated, capital-intensive, multi-year projects to fruition," the report said.

The report also suggests that regulatory uncertainty in U.S. waters has had an impact on the price of oil.

In contrast to 2008, when the price of oil dropped by $9 a barrel after President George W. Bush lifted a moratorium on offshore development, the price of oil did not change in October 2010, when President Obama lifted a moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf.

"The lack of change was due largely to the president's accompanying declaration of new safety rules to govern Gulf activity," the report said. "The market foresaw a drawn-out period of clarification and uneven implementation, with the potential to negatively impact Gulf of Mexico deepwater operations."

The study was authored by Bernard Weinstein, associate director of the university's Maguire Energy Institute, which was initially funded by Cary Maguire, president of Maguire Oil Co. It was prepared for the Gulf Economic Survival Team.

Political rhetoric over the government's response to the Deepwater Horizon spill intensified over the past year but has been tempered recently as a rise in gasoline prices appears to have crested.

House Republicans have passed legislation that would place a "shot clock" on the approval of exploration plans and permits and significantly expand the scope of leasing.

Michael Bromwich, former director of the Interior Department's revamped drilling agencies, this week panned the bills as "political grandstanding" in a National Journal online forum.

"The legislative reaction, at least in the House, to a massive oil spill that highlighted the weaknesses in offshore regulation was to work to undo the long overdue reforms that were implemented in its wake," he wrote. "These are not serious efforts to deal with real problems through the development of a sound and balanced energy policy."

Oil production in the Gulf dropped significantly in 2011, due in large part to the post-spill moratorium on deepwater exploration.

But economists at the Energy Information Administration appear bullish on the Gulf's future, predicting earlier this year that Gulf output could expand from 1.3 million barrels a day in 2011 to as much as 2 million barrels a day by 2020, depending on market conditions.