The Interior Department today announced that it has honored nearly every request it received to extend deepwater oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico, a move meant to placate those who argued their operations were affected by the moratorium and regulatory shakeup following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill last year.

Interior's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement granted 1,381 of the 1,413 "suspension of operations" requests submitted since the Obama administration announced in June that it would allow a one-year extension of certain qualifying leases.

The agency allowed extensions for nonproducing leases in waters deeper than 500 feet that were due to expire before the end of 2015.

The extensions are designed to allow additional time to explore and develop oil and gas while complying with new safety, environmental, spill response and containment requirements, Interior said.

But the move drew criticism from Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), who in August said he would block confirmation of a top-level Interior nominee unless the agency extends all leases -- including shallow-water leases -- due to expire at the end of the year.

Neither the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee nor its Environment and Public Works Committee has voted on the nomination of Rebecca Wodder as assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks.

"I'll continue blocking President Obama's nominee," Vitter said this afternoon in an email. "Completing 97.7 percent of only half of your job doesn't mean the work is complete."

Interior has said the deepwater moratorium following last year's disastrous oil spill in the Gulf did not affect shallow-water drillers.

But Vitter said more than 300 offshore leases in the Gulf are due to expire by the end of the year. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), a key Democratic vote on the ENR Committee, continues to back Vitter's hold and has also called for lease extensions.

"Pretending that shallow water leases either weren't affected or don't matter is just sad," Vitter said. "If these leases are allowed to expire, they will revert to the federal government, killing jobs and cutting off potential revenue from exploration and production."